My prediction on Kinsella joining Team Rossi

With Kinsella confirming today that he's joining the Rocco Rossi team, you can quote me on this... Rossi's numbers will start to climb in two to two and a half weeks. At the same time, Smitherman will start some serious bleeding, as people realize that there's just no way he can beat Ford.

Warren on Iggy calling Harper the Devil: "Not a good idea"

Another reason I've always liked the guy... he's honest, doesn't pull any punches, and will give an honest evaluation of a political situation... in this case, Iffy's "Sulphur-gate" GAFFE. A good overall analysis of Iggy's overall campaign thus far.



Care to offer an apology yet Mr. Ignatieff?

Warren SUPPORTS scrapping the long-form census

Warren made this interesting statement on his blog last night, and only now does it all make sense... he supports the Harper government's move to scrap the long-form census, citing privacy issues as the reason for his support. (note, I said "supports the Harper government's MOVE", not "supports the government"... a distinction I think he'd appreciate my pointing out)

Last night, he said ‎"I’m not involved with Team Iggy, for reasons that would shortly become become crystal clear, and nor are they involved with me." PERHAPS this is what he's referring to, because today he posted the link to the following video: (of course, another theory is that he's about to sign with SunTV NEWS, but we'll just have to wait and see...)



I'm neither here nor there about this issue.

Warren Kinsella on the Liberal/NDP Coalition

Love him or hate him, Warren Kinsella is one of the better political minds here in Canada. And he proves it once again today, with a good analysis of Ignatieff's options regarding a possible coalition with the NDP.

Not too much you can argue with here, at least on his analysis of what would be best for the Liberal Party of Canada.

Warren QUITS post in Liberal War Room

WOW... things are NOT COOL in Liberal land right now, if they've got die hard Liberals like Warren Kinsella quitting on them.

OLO bloodletting prompts Warren Kinsella to ditch Liberal war room
Jane Taber

Warren Kinsella has quit as head of the Liberal war room, complaining in part about the treatment of Michael Ignatieff’s former chief of staff, Ian Davey, and ex-communications director Jill Fairbrother.

Although he says he has moved on and is still a federal Liberal, Mr. Kinsella told The Globe in an email this month he “was unhappy about the way in which some people were dealt with.”

“For example, Ian and Jill and others are my friends, and they brought me in. I didn’t like how they were treated but they moved on, and so have I.”

"Iggy's T.O. OLO"

Everyone remembers the old "Mr. Dithers" tag, right? There's a rule when it comes to framing your opponent... instead of using dozens of different tags, you pick one or two, and then repeat them until they stick. As for a recent example, there's Iggy's new nickname "Iffy"... I finally saw someone in the MSM mention that nickname in today's coverage.

So, with Ignatieff's blunder of trying to run the Quebec Liberal organization out of his own Toronto-centric OLO, we've been given a rare opportunity to do exactly what Warren would advise us to do... take a known fact, frame it correctly, and then beat them over the head with it relentlessly.

As such, here's my submission to how we correctly frame Ignatieff's leadership...

Iggy's T.O. OLO

Has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Now here's what we do with that tag... repeat it non-stop, EVERWHERE, on every blog, in every Letter to the Editor, and on every media outlet's website comments section, until the MSM picks gets it. Even if they don't repeat it in their stories, it'll be so ingraned into the back of their minds that their coverage can't help but reflect that angle.

THAT'S how we win this media war. That's how we take advantage of this momunental blunder by Ignatieff, and make sure that every clearly gets the message that the Liberal Party of Canada is now the Liberal Party of TORONTO... and most of this country is sick of Toronto dictating to the rest of us how this country ought to be run.

UPDATE: Stephen Taylor adds more fuel to the "T.O. OLO" fire... Iggy's Narnia ads were filmed at Cherry Beach, in DOWNTOWN TORONTO.


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Warren heading up the WarRoom

It's official... according to the Hill Times, Warren Kinsella will indeed be running Ignatieff's "War Room" during the upcoming campaign, as a "volunteer". (perhaps in an effort to insulate Iggy in case anything goes wrong...)

While many of my fellow Tories will mock and deride him, I see this as a blow to us... trust me, he WILL do us some damage. Take one of his most recent posts as an example... "Harper wants a Majority because his party hates minorities".

While we all know this isn't in any way true, this is just the opening salvo in what's going to be a nasty campaign... and quite frankly, we have only ourselves to blame.

Thanks to the fiasco of the "HRC Section 13" junk that folks have been harping on for months on end, Warren's going to be able to make some serious hay with that issue. The Liberals will have a load of ammo in the can, ready to go, portraying us as being a bunch of racist bigots. Don't forget the Flanagan line that's been floating around for the last week... "It doesn't have to be true, it just has to be plausible". I submit to you all that our various quotes on Section 13 will give some plausibility to that theme in the minds of some voters.

THAT'S why Warren is effective... he can take a mole hill, and make an electoral mountian out of something. It's coming, and now there's nothing we can do to stop it.

I certianly hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid we're going to see why Section 13 was a bad hill to plant our flag on... why do you think I abstained from the vote in Winnipeg? Yes, the HRC's need to be reformed... but the way we've gone about the issue is gonna come back and bite us.

When a photo op is just a photo op

So Warren posted a photo in an effort to smear Minister Kennedy today, and got a digital tongue lashing from Maclean's Kady O'Malley for his efforts. (at least I'm assuming he's who she's refering too).

Sometimes, a photo op is just that... a photo op. I'd like to take this opportunity to post a few examples...

Exhibit A - A friend posing with a former Cabinet Minister (oops... how'd that anti-Dion shirt get past the guards and into that shot?):

Exhibit B - Me posing with the Ontario Provincial Green Party Leader:
FULL DISCLOSURE: I had a chance a few weeks ago to snag a shot with Federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, as it was just her and I in the hallway for a moment... but I kept walking instead)

Exhibit C - Me posting with a Federal Opposition Party Leader (with whom I share little ideologically, other than the fact that we actually hold ideological positions, unlike our Liberal "friends"):
(a co-worker saw this photo the other day, as I have it posted above my desk, along with one of my pics with the PM... her comment was, "I see someone has been cutting and pasting photos!" Pretty much floored her when I told her that no, in fact, those were original photographs)

Exhibit D - Some unnamed blogger posing with a former Canadian Prime Minister and his wife, alongside a philandering and nearly impeached former President of the United States:
(only copy of the photo I could snag online was one that was a PhotoShopped one from a conservative blog with captions that I didn't want to post here...)

See where I'm going with this? Sometimes, a photo is just a photo. Posting the "embarrassing" photo was a bit of a stretch, and I'm sure it will come right back at them... as the article linked to by Kady points out (an article she also decries, it should be noted), the ON PC "President" in question was a former Liberal supporter. Here's hoping he didn't manage to snag a similar photo of himself with a certain Premier of Ontario at a local event, eh?

Warren and Liberal bloggers attack Muslim Canadians

Take their argument to it's logical conclusion... anyone who believes in "the Creation myth", as the majority of the Muslim world does, is ineligable to hold a Cabinet portfolio in Canada, at least according to Warren Kinsella along with many other Liberal bloggers.

They haven't said that in so many words, mind you, but in their attempts to once again attack a Conservative Cabinet Minister, who happens to be a Christian, that's exactly what they've done. If a belief in "Creation" is a litmus test for Cabinet-ineligability here in Canada, then you can pretty much rule out a large chunk of Canada's Muslim population.

From Wikipedia:

Creation Myth - Islam
The creation narrative of Islam is split among many verses in the Qur'an. This narrative is similar to the Judeo-Christian accounts of creation. According to the Qur'an, the skies and the earth were joined together as one "unit of creation", after which they were "cloved asunder".[18]

The Qur'an states that the process of creation took 6 days or epochs (depending on the interpretation).

What's even more sad is that they don't even realize that they're also saying that a good percentage of the Jewish population is also automaticly ineligable to hold public office in this great country of ours.

Hello? What is this, 1930's Germany? And the Liberals claim their "friends" of the Jews? I think not, when they so openly riducule the Jewish Holy Book, the Torah.

Why is it that Liberals seem to so vehemently hate Christians? Or anyone of faith for that matter?

Obama vs. Harper pics

A couple Liberals (read: Warren) are trying to make big deals about how Obama and Harper AREN'T anything alike. Well, looks like we're the ones setting the agenda on this issue, eh Warren? (got that from some book I read... always keep the other guys talking about what YOU want to talk about) Of course, they're doing this to try and distract people from the incredible ideological similarites these two men have.

Anyway, here's the photo they've been posting of Obama...


And here's my preferred one of Harper... with that expression, I think he's either aiming at the media, or a Liberal... heads up Warren!

Life just got more difficult for the Tories

Warren is backing Iggy.

Though a lot of Tory bloggers hate the guy, he's a brilliant operative. He's been a significant part of the McGuinty war room in the last two elections... anyone recall how badly they destroyed John Tory during the campaign? I remember attending a John Tory event in Guelph... reporters weren't paying any attention to Tory, they all had their heads down reading the latest press release from the Liberal War Room.

If Warren's backing Iggy and Iggy wins (as it's starting to look like a coronation), then life just got a whole lot more complicated for us in the next election.

Add to that the juvenile and politically suicidal antics of some Tories (yes, I'm talking about your e-mails from this morning Mr. B...), and it's starting to look like the next election is going to be a real fight.

UPDATE: Hang on a sec... I just re-read what Warren said:

"Some months ago, I was in Montreal to give a speech to a group of Conservative, Liberal and Green Party students at McGill. Out of the blue, one of Michael’s staff people called me up, and asked if I would consider having breakfast with the Grit MP at a nearby hotel. I was a bit surprised."

Say that again? "Some months ago"?!?!? Do you mean, like, before October 15th? Did Warren just tell us that Iggy was busy quietly organizing for another leadership bid before Dion had even lost the election?

Talk about party loyalty... dear Liberals, is that the sort of guy you really want to support? A guy who's making plans to take over while the leader of your party still has a pulse?

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Warren on why Harper will win

There's nothing to add by my further commentary... Go and read his post for yourself.

Warren on why Chretien Libs are "still in exile"

With something so clear and consise like this, it's better to just repost it in it's entirety. (I especially like the part where he says he thinks that Mr. Harper is going to win, and will be at the helm for a LONG time...)

DAY 15: KINSELLA'S CLEAR CANADIAN CAMPAIGN COVERAGE
Sunday, September 21, 2008, 01:45 AM

It's another Sunday, and another opportunity to ponder Election 2008 without the "winner/loser" duality. On Sundays, the Lord permits us a bit more reflection, right? Right.

A few folks - not many, but some - have asked me where all the Chrétien people are in this federal campaign. Apart from the involvement of a few whose kinship with the Liberal Party of Canada predates Chrétien, they note, a lot of us seem to be sitting this one out. Some are anxious about this, but most of them are just curious. It's a fair question.

The short answer - the cliché - is that we didn't leave the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party left us. Like many clichés, it has the added value of actually being true. Throughout 2002 and 2003, the Liberal Party of Canada was transformed into a virtual abbatoir by the Paul Martin people. As with their predecessors in the Khmer Rouge and suchlike, the Martinites devised all sorts of loyalty tests, and sought the fealty of those who - like them - would stop at nothing, literally nothing, to drive Jean Chrétien from power. The bloodletting stories are legion; most famously, they dropped Stéphane Dion from cabinet and tried (unsuccessfully) to challenge him for the nomination in his riding.

Gomery and assorted Parliamentary inquiries were just a couple of the tactics conjured up to destroy Chrétien and his people. Reputations were unjustly shredded; some were bankrupted by lawyers' fees (my wife and I are still paying thousands in legal bills); some were hounded out, even when they were sick or caring for the sick (like Jean Pelletier, or Pierre Tremblay, or Herb Dhaliwal); many just grew weary of the smears and moved on. They left, and - mostly - they never came back.

I was different, as you may have observed. One of the cardinal Liberal principles having been tossed on the slag heap by the Martin thugs - the Always Be Loyal To The Leader principle - I figured that anyone could now do likewise. I dubbed myself a "Liberal In Exile," and did all that I could do to make the lives of the Martinites a living H**l. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I and my fellow exiles celebrated their slide into minority status - and, two years later, their loss of government. I despised them. Many other Liberals felt as I did, but few said so publicly.

When Stéphane Dion won the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, the Chrétien people celebrated. We saw it as a clear and firm repudiation of Paul Martin and his cabal. What we did not see - not even for a moment - was what has happened. Dion, I believe now, was the ultimate compromise candidate. He won the leadership with about 17 per cent support. He did not have a team around him that was large enough, or experienced enough, to assume control of an organization as complex as the Liberal Party of Canada. Into this void slipped the unemployable Martinites - as TV pundits, as pollsters, as senior advisors. They were back, and so too the old grievances. All willingness of the Chrétien people to get involved again vanished. In the interim, a bad situation only grew more so. It culminated, on the eve of the election, with Dion's most senior Quebec lieutenants calling the Chrétien folks "has beens" who are not needed to win.

It may be true! It may be so. It may be, in fact, that the people who helped to win three successive majorities aren't needed at all, and that Stéphane Dion will somehow snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I hope so, for him, if not necessarily many of the people around him.

Some Liberals, still seeking the help of the Chrétien team, ask: Will it ever change, even after Stephen Harper wins the election (because I believe he will)? My answer: I am sorry, but I doubt it. By the time the next leadership race takes place (because, also, I do not believe Dion will retire, and will demand the same second chance John Turner got), almost a decade will have gone by. I do not see Bob Rae or Michael Ignatieff waiting that long, either. If the Liberal Party is ever to win back government, it will be with new people, in caucus and the backrooms. That, I think, is how it should be. It's needed.

In the meantime, the Conservatives will have had the country for nearly a decade. Does that concern me, as a Chrétien Liberal? Yes, it does. Of course it does.

But the opportunity to do something about it is gone, and I don't believe the opportunity will be coming back. That may not be a happy end to the story, but that's how politics is, sometimes. You don't always get the result you want.

Warren says "Libs need less Dion"

LOL... and some of my fellow Tories wonder why I like this guy so much...

Warren throws in his two cents regarding the floundering Liberal campaign.

Dion's Day One Gaffes

Day One of the campaign, and already we have a couple of gaffes from the Liberal leader. Thanks to Warren Kinsella and CFRB's Bill Caroll for pointing them out!

Early yesterday, Liberal leader Stephane Dion said that Jean Carle of Sponsorship infamy would be a part of the Liberal campaign team. As the Liberal leader, and presumably the leader of the Quebec Liberal caucus, you'd think he'd be a bit more in the know. Anyway, this has been denied by Liberal National Campaign Co-Chair Nancy Girard.

As translated from La Presse by Google:

"Yesterday midday in press conference, the Liberal leader Stéphane Dion said that Mr. Carle would be involved in the campaign. "Carle will have a role. I am not exactly aware of which, but it will have a role," he said.

But this information has been denied a late evening with Nancy Girard, co-chair of the campaign. "The name of Mr. Carle was raised, but it will not post with us," she decided."

Oops... h/t to Warren on that one.

Secondly, from Bill Caroll on CFRB 1010 this morning, on a gaffe that he says the rest of the press missed... here's a rough transcript of what he said was: "Stephen Harper has these commercials about family. So at yesterday's press conference, he gets asked about his thoughts on Dion as a family man. The Prime Minister responds by saying he doesn't know much about Dion's family life, but that he's sure Dion is a good family man too. So the press asks Dion about his family, and Dion replies with, "I'm a Liberal, we don't mix family and politics". Then the camera pans out, and standing right next to him is his own wife... but he's the only politican who brought his wife to his campaign launch! So much for not mixing family and politics!" Oops again...

Then of course, there's the issue of the missing campaign plane... oh, right, they don't need it yet... or so they say. I'm of the opinion that they scripted the campaign based on aircraft availability, and NOT the other way around. Something about being broke and unable to come up with the deposit required to lease one from Air Canada, perhaps?

All in all not a very good day at all for the Liberal leader... if he wasn't attempting to replace the best Prime Minister we've had in my lifetime, I'd be feeling sorry for him right now.

Dion can't even get Liberal campaign off the ground

It's kinda hard for your election camapaign to "take off" when you're campaign airplane is still missing in action.

And you know it's bad when even Warren, a lifelong Liberal, is willing to poke fun at the situation... this episode of "Warren @ Arms Length" is freaking HILARIOUS, if you ask me...

Warren on Dion's Carbon Tax: Bad Move

I still don't get why so many Tories hate this guy... cause he just keeps on getting it right on most of the issues.

Like today... when he rips into Dion for his Carbon Tax idea. He's not saying that he disagrees with it, but he just recognizes that it's a surefire way to LOSE an election.

This idea's not a trial balloon... it's a lead balloon, and that's exactly how it's going to go over with the public this summer.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what the next Tory 10%er is gonna look like...

Warren's calling it for Obama

I tend to agree with Warren Kinsella's analysis... Clinton is finished.

Obama looks to beat her by a whopping 14% in North Carolina, and she's only ahead of him by a sliver, at 4% in Indiana.

All the analysts were saying that Clinton had to win Indiana by double digits in order to have a hope of hanging on.  The big question is, will she hang on, and hope the Super Delegates will hand her the Big Prize?

Stay tuned sports fans...

UPDATE, 10:39pm:  She's not backing out... listening to her speech live on CNN, and she's continuing on with her pursuit of the White House.  She's giving her victory speech right now in Indiana... wouldn't that be embarrassing if once all the polls are counted, she ends up behind!

The CNN Ticker reported on Rush Limbaugh’s "Operation Chaos", raising the question of whether or not his call to GOP supporters to vote for her in the primaries has had an effect on the outcome.  I was listening to Rush all week when I went down to Florida in March... he's encouraging Republicans to vote for Clinton just to keep her in the race.  Is it having an effect?  Who knows... but it did make for entertaining radio while in the States.

UPDATE, 10:59pm: Off to bed, but an interesting note... my wife noticed a comment on the Facebook page of a friend, but she didn't realize what it meant until I reminded her of this... the note said, "I participated in Operation Chaos".  And yes... the guy's a Republican.

UPDATE III: Wow... looks like I'm getting pounded with visits from CNN... I'm one of the blogs they're reporting as having linked to the story. I think some in the States reading it may have been mislead by my headline, thinking I was referring to Warren Buffet... no, I'm referring to Warren Kinsella, a political aide to former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and author of the current political handbook "The War Room"... which in my opinion is a great overview of political and media strategy in our modern era. (and might as well have been the playbook from which the Ontario Liberal Party was reading from during their win last year)

Getting more and more disgusted with the "right"

I'm really starting to get sick of this garbage... you know, the folks who claim to be supporting "freedom of speech", and then bring things down into the gutter with personal and baseless attacks like this.

John West, if that's even his real name, is the kind of guy who makes me wish I wasn't aligned with the "conservative" movement.  Get a load of this disgusting shot he takes at Warren over on the Doggeral's blog...

John West said...

 

Don't be too hard on Kinsella. Rumor has it that his father died at Auschwitz. Apparently, he got drunk and fell out of the gun tower. ;0)

 

3/23/2008 11:36:00 AM

Oh, you think you're funny dude?  Well guess what... you're not.  That was a disgusting comment, and completely unwarranted.  Everyone know's Warren's dad died of cancer, thanks to the tobacco industry.  Your sickening personal attack on Warren, via his father, who he dearly loved and still misses very much, was WAY OUT OF LINE.

To be honest, I've been disgusted with a growing number of posts I've seen on the blogroll lately... pretty much every post I see on this issue, for the record.  Most of them seem to be nothing more than another Warren bashing session, which all seem to delve down into the gutter of personal attacks... when the irony is, I tend to agree more with Warren on this issue than anyone else.

Yes, I'm an advocate of LIMITED free speech... I don't believe that anyone, ANYONE, has the right to say that anyone from any race is better than, or lesser than, anyone from any other race.  We are all created in the image of God, and as such, are inherently equal to one another... we're all cousins in the human race.

And yes, I agree with Warren in that anyone who publicly advocates any form of racism deserves to be locked up... for stupidity, if nothing else.

Racism is a cancerous tumour that needs to be rooted out of our society.  I support the aims and objectives of everyone who seeks this goal... and I oppose anyone who does not agree with this view, even if they only claim that they're supporting "free speech".

(And yes, I recognize that some people may see a conflict in my views on this one, since I believe, for example, that Muslims, Hindus and Catholics are wrong when it comes to their faiths.  Here's how that works... I believe that we are all equal as persons in the eyes of God.  However, I believe that there can only be one Truth when it comes to faith, as each of these faiths have elements that are mutually exclusive... basically, they can't all be true.  I also believe, however, that everyone is entitled to believe as they wish... regardless of how wrong I may think they are.  Hope that makes sense.)

There, got that off my chest.  Feel free to flame away... I'm sure many of you won't be able to resist.

My bottom line is this... either bring up the level of debate folks, or just SHUT UP... many of you are not doing the cause of conservatism any favours with your gutter level rhetoric.

UPDATE: Welcome to all the readers tuning in via Warren's site.  I sent him the link to this post to let him know firstly of the personal attack on him, and secondly to let him know that not everyone on the right thinks he's an idiot.  Now that I see he's posted it on the front of his website, I'm thinking my hit counter is going to get a workout.  For the record, I still haven't had a chance to actually meet the guy, but I'm pleased to see that he considers me a friend... and not just on Facebook.

UPDATE II: Based on some of the comments, I'd like to be clear... I'm not saying that folks like John West are representative of "the right", just that it's folks like him that bring the rest of us down with him in the eyes of the public. Hope that clears that up. I don't have any intention at this point to drop out of the aggregator, I was just pointing out that some of the stuff that's been said on this issue, and broadcast via the aggregator, hasn't been the most shining examples of conservative thought... and that we need to bring the dialouge up a couple more notches, in my opinion.

Warren on Polls

Warren has an interesting post on polling in the Alberta election, and the current US Democratic race in Texas. He points out that polls, these days, are quite unreliable, partially due to the fact that more and more people have cell phones and are never home. (I also think it's because more people are screening their phone calls)

In talking about the Alberta election, he says people have been asking him, basically, "What happened?" All the polls were saying that "Steady Eddie" was going to have a rougher ride than he actually had. So, he makes a couple comments, and then makes the most interesting point:

"Does this mean that polling firms will go back to much-more-accurate phone-based surveys? As they wipe the metaphorical egg of their faces, yet again, I suspect they want to. But, when more and more people are using cell phones - and fewer and fewer are using residential land lines - that's easier said than done.

What does it all mean? It means more election-night surprises. To get specific, here in Ottawa, I think it means Harper is ahead by more than a lot of hacks and flaks realize.

Over and out, from our seat of government. Later."

Anyone still wonder why I'm eager to get to the polls? Maybe it's because I agree with Warren on this one.