Republican Congressman Resigns Over Emails Exchanged with Male Page

From BREITBART News:

Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., submitted a letter of resignation from Congress on Friday in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former male page, according to a congressional official.

Foley was considered a shoo-in for re-election until the emails to the page, who was 16 at the time of the exchange, surfaced.

Big news. It only takes a 15 seat gain by the Dems this year for them to "flip" the House. Foley's seat should move from the "no way" column to the "possible pick-up" column.

Quick update at about 4:10 pm: according to ABC News, there were also AOL Instant messanger messages involved, and other male pages. The messages were sexually graphic. Perhaps not surprisingly, Foley was the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.

Stephen LeDrew Jumps into "Horse Race"

Depending how you cut the numbers, Mayor Miller's lead in the race for Toronto Mayor has fallen to either fifteen or five points:

The Ipsos Reid survey, conducted on behalf of the National Post, Global News and CFRB, shows 55% of decided voters intend to support Mr. Miller compared with 40% for Ms. Pitfield. The contest becomes even closer among decided voters who are "absolutely certain" to cast a ballot, with 51% backing the Mayor versus 46% for Ms. Pitfield.

...which should make David Miller concerned, but not too concerned. Meanwhile Stephen LeDrew, Toronto lawyer and former President of the federal Liberal Party, has announced that he will throw his hat into the ring. David Miller is, of course, an avowed Dipper with a great deal of support from downtown, but less out in the Burbs and among the Toronto business community. LeDrew's appearance would seem to me to split the "anyone but Miller" vote, and I am not how much name recognition he's got among people who do not actively follow the cut and thrust of party politics.

I suspect the NDP turnout machine will pull this one out for Miller, with the final spread closer to the 15% than the 5%.

Hardcore SoCon Becomes Rona Ambrose' Chief of Staff

From Public Eye Online, an online journal of B.C. Politics, comes this startling bit of news:

On Monday, The Hill Times's Abbas Ranna reported former Focus on the Family Canada president Darrel Reid, who was once a "top political aide to former Reform Party leader Preston Manning, will start his new job as chief of staff to Minister (Rona) Ambrose today."

Darrel Reid once, among other things, compared Canada to Naze Germany, warning that Christians could face imprisonment for speaking out against homosexuality.

h/t to DeSmogBlog, who note that Dr. Reid "has very little, if any, experience in the area of the environment". Apparently, the MoE is becoming for the Tories what FEMA has always been for the American Republican Party: a place to stick their loyal-but-stupid.

The Pope Would Denounce Iggy (If He Only had the Time)

Catholic Insight points to Iggy as a measure of the decadence of the Liberal Party of Canada for his stance on Gay and Abortion Rights. His support, and the support of other Secular Liberals, for these rights leads inevitably to things like the 2005 Lebaye ruling which, despite a ban on indecency in the Criminal Code, declares that perverts have a right to engage in group sex in a public place as they see fit.

Hmm. I may have to reconsider my antipathy towards Iggy. Is this "group sex" thing anywhere in his platform? Ted?

More important: does he tell you where you can get some?

Lib Membership Poll Shows More Good News For Rae

From Today's Star:

Bob Rae has emerged as the leading candidate in the Liberal leadership race, according to a poll of party members in Ontario and Quebec released today by the Toronto Star and La Presse.

According to the poll, conducted by EKOS Research, MP Michael Ignatieff (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) is in a dead heat with Rae among rank-and-file Liberals as first choice for leader in the two provinces, expected to have more than half the delegates to the leadership convention in Montreal at the end of November.

[...]

The poll shows Ignatieff and Rae tied at 25 per cent as top choice for leader of those surveyed, with Dion garnering 17 per cent and Kennedy, 16 per cent.

Second choices show Rae and Dion tied at 27 per cent, with Ignatieff at 19 per cent.

Apparently Hedy Fry got no votes. And, apparently, The Star "obtained" Liberal Party membership lists from somewhere. Might as well slap that list on a CD and sell 'em for $20 apiece.

Iggy Raised Me From My Bath!

As I lay in the tub, in the throes of my fever, hallucinating tiny insects running across the ceiling, I was forced to rush across two rooms to answer a robotic phone-message from the Ignatieff campaign. May you burn in HELL Iggy!




















May Iggy dwell here FOREVER!

Did Dion, Dryden, and Brison Violate Federal Law?

I am not a lawyer, but through my work in the real world have some acquaintance with PIPEDA (The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act). The way I understand this law as it would apply to shenanigans related to the Liberal Party Membership List as reported here is as follows. In joining the Party, a person is providing certain personal information to the party. Furthermore, the mere fact that they allow themselves to appear on the list conveys personal information--that they are a party Member. They are doing this in the expectation that the Party will use the information only for specific purposes (however those purposes have been explicitly or tacitly defined). To use this information for purposes beyond the definition, the Party, or certain third parties given access to the data by the Party, must essentially approach every person on the list and ask permission to use their personal information before going ahead.

So, the way I see it, unless Dion, Dryden, and etc. contacted every Liberal on the rolls and asked if their data could be turned over to the Globe, then they may be in violation of the Act.

Therefore this latest "scandal" may not be just an issue internal to the Liberal Party, and perhaps, not as trivial a matter as I thought.

Now, as I say, I am not a lawyer, so I may be totally wrong on how the legislation would apply to the current situation. Non-profits, political parties among them, are exempted from certain aspects of PIPEDA. For example, The Party can turn over its list to certain third parties--Leadership candidates among them--so that these candidates can solicit Members for support, donations, and the like. But are Leadership candidates in turn allowed to turn over said list to a commercial entity like the Globe and Mail, which then use it for a commercial purpose (doing a poll and publishing the results so as to sell newspapers)? I don't know.

PIPEDA is complicated, and many of the issues it raises have yet to be tested. Furthermore, it is complaints driven, so if no Liberal Party Member raises an alert with the Privacy Commissioner, nothing happens. However, if they do, The Privacy Commissioner can launch an investigation and dole out punishment.

If anyone wants to look at the legislation, the website of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada can be found here.

Did Brison, Dryden, and Dion Leak Lib Membership Lists?

It looks like the Globe Poll of the Lib Leadership Race published last week and blogged about here might have been derived the a list of Liberal Party Members that the Globe was not supposed to have access too, but came to them courtesy of the above-noted Leadership candidates. CTV says:

OTTAWA -- Three Liberal leadership hopefuls could face sanctions for giving the party's confidential membership lists to a newspaper which used the data to conduct a controversial opinion poll on the leadership race.

The Globe and Mail, which published the poll results last week, said it obtained the lists from the campaigns of Stephane Dion, Ken Dryden and Scott Brison, although the latter's camp has since denied any

Sounds like trivial stuff to me, but still, from the POV of the Party, a sanctions worthy no-no. So spanky spanky!

It'll Put Your Eye Out

LIVERPOOL, England, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Throwing raw eggs at people as a form of protest or a bit of Halloween fun may result in serious eye injury, warns a British study.

[...]

"The dimensions of an egg are similar to those of a squash ball, with a considerably greater weight, meaning that eggs as missiles can easily fit into the orbital rim, causing severe blunt injury even when thrown by hand," the authors write.

To clarify, the study "monitored" patients requiring treatment for eye injuries. They didn't line 'em up against a fall and pelt 'em with Grade As. And I have no idea what the alternative to being "thrown by hand" might be.

Well, I'm still sick but on the road to recovery. Drove the car for the first time in a week today, and found out I had a flat. The good times continue.

Afghanistan Costing Tories in B.C. Too

According to the Vancouver Sun:

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who presented his foreign policy vision to the United Nations Thursday, is losing support in B.C. because of his approach to international issues, suggests Vancouver-based pollster Mustel Group.

[...]

The Tories are in front with 34 per cent of respondents saying they intend to vote Conservative, largely unchanged from previous Mustel polls in March and June. The Liberals are next at 30 per cent, followed by the NDP at 28 per cent.

Actually, since Harper won won 17 of B.C.’s 36 ridings with 37 per cent of the vote in January, I would think this (three per cent) decline is significant, although not beyond the margin of error. Because, in addition, Harper's personal approval rating has sank to 45 per cent from the 50 per cent recorded in June, his disapproval rating risen to 38%, a nine point increase. Those figures do seem at or beyond the margin

So, regionally we see the Harper Tories falling everywhere outside of their base in Alberta. And I think we see a certain death-wish taking hold in Tory ranks. Today's Edmonton Sun:

In other words, Harper is standing by the Afghanistan mission on principle - on Canada's principles. That it's the right thing to do, even if it's going to be difficult.

And even if it costs him a majority government.

Go for it, Stevie lad. That's all I can say.

Anyway, this is the extent of any "analysis" I'm going to attempt. I've still got the flu and, as Vancouver boy William Gibson once wrote, feel like "hammered crap".

BigCityLib, Sick as Dog

A general feeling of crumminess tuned into a fever and vomiting last night as the flu my wife had last week finally caught up with me. Won't be writing much, as I can barely string three words together at a time. If Iggy wants to say or do anything stupid, now is the time.

Dawson College Shooter was Political Lefty

From the LifeSite, which really sweats this kind of stuff, a selection from Kimveer Gill's dislikes, taken from his website:

Animal Cruelty
American Government
Anyone Who Supports The American Government
Religion
God
Capatalists (sic)
F***ing Religious People Who Think They Know Everything.....And Then They Stick It In Your Face Cuz' They Think They Know Everything (They Don't Understand That They're Just A Bunch Of Little Sheep)
Catholics
Church Going A**holes
Bible Thumpping Know-It-Alls
All Priests
Republicans
Homophobes

Sounds a bit like me on a bad day.

Brian Rushfeldt of the Canada Family Action Coalition (CFAC) notes:

"If we are worried about individuals who might do things like this," said Rushfeldt, "... we should know about them. By omitting his left-leaning stand, said Rushfeldt, "the media [is] contributing to missing warning signs by not pointing out full facts."

Not mentioned here is the fact that notorious American serial killer Ted Bundy campaigned for the Republicans, and that Canada's own Robert Pickton ran a small business and wrote several letters to an American correspondent where he referenced The Bible in an approving manner.

I think we Lefties come out ahead in this little contest.

Two New Polls Contain Bad News for Iggy, Bad News For Harper, Good News for Bob Rae

An exclusive poll of Liberal Party members conducted by the Strategic Counsel for The Globe and Mail/CTV News shows that:

Mr. Ignatieff is the first choice of 19 per cent of Liberals surveyed, with Mr. Rae running a tight second at 17 per cent and Mr. Dion just behind with 13 per cent. Gerard Kennedy and Ken Dryden — with 9 per cent each — are tied for fourth. Scott Brison garnered 3 per cent of the vote and Joe Volpe 2 per cent, while Martha Hall Findlay got 1 per cent and Hedy Fry less than 1 per cent.

Why Bad news for Iggy? Because

According to the poll, Mr. Rae is the second choice of 23 per cent of party members and Mr. Dion is the second choice of 17 per cent. Mr. Ignatieff is well down, with only 12 per cent picking him as their second choice.

[Allan] Gregg said the race between Mr. Ignatieff and Mr. Rae could be almost a dead heat after the first tier of lower candidates drop out after the first ballot.

Mr. Gregg sees the makings of an "anyone but Iggy movement", and in fact sees Bob Rae as the person most likely to emerge as nominee.

Meanwhile, in another Strategic Counsel poll for The Globe, Stephen Harpers approval ratings have fallen significantly over the summer. The overall numbers:

Nationally, the Conservatives had the support of 35 per cent of those surveyed, followed by the Liberals at 26 per cent, the NDP at 19, the Bloc Québécois at 12 and the Green Party at 8 per cent.

Both the Libs and Tories are down one point from the last Strategic Counsel survey. And, as most other recent polls have shown, the national numbers show a precipitous decline in Tory support in Quebec (16%), where they have fallen to third place behind both the Bloc (48%) and the Libs (18%). Interestingly, the NDP is up a couple of points to 11 per cent.

All of which supports the feeling that Gregg notes among Liberal Party members to the effect that they are voting for a potential Prime Minister, not just a Leader of the Opposition.

Will Democrats Screw it Up?

7Ominous signs in the RealClearPolitics Generic Congressional Vote Average, which has fallen to a 6.5 per cent lead for the Democrats from about 16 per cent not a month ago.

It always astounds me how our Progressive counterparts South of the border manage to screw things up election after election. The Bush Republicans, as one writer has noted, are running on the slogan "Vote Democrat and DIE!" It's the same one they ran on in '04 and '02, and everytime they use it, the Dems stand around with their mouthes open and their tongues hanging out. When a Canadian Conservative calls a Canadian Liberal unpatriotic, we strike back twice as hard ("You are a TOOL of the American Empire!"); do the same thing to a U.S. Democrat, and they spend a month worrying about whether its true or not.

The good news is that there's still about two months to go before the mid-terms. Once the 9-11 Five Year Anniversary hangover has worn off, I expect to see these numbers improve for the Dems a little bit. The bad news is, with gas prices predicted to stay relatively low up until Christmas, they probably will not improve a great deal. For too many American white males, Economic Security means nothing more than being able to gas up the SUV, drive out into the desert, and fire off a few hundred rounds at imaginary terrorists.

Man Rejects First Penis Transplant

Apparently, he was looking for something a bit larger.

From Drudge, obviously.

Liberal Majority in New Brunswick has National Implications

It has just been announced on CBC TV that Liberal leader Shawn Graham has won a Liberal Majority government in New Brunswick, with (about) 31 seats vs. (about) 25 for the Tories and zip for the NDP. They are just barely ahead in the popular vote.

This is very big news nationally, for the "bench" of potential Tory leaders, after PM Stephen Harper and now ex-N.B. Premier Bernard Lord, is zero. Bernard Lord's great selling point is that he is a "softer", less doctrinaire, more old fashioned form of Conservative, more in the line of Stanfield and Davis, less in the line of Manning and Day. Plus he's bilingual. He might win in Ontario and Quebec.

His great drawback is that his "base" (New Brunswick) contributes all of 10 seats federally. And now he doesn't even have that. We can therefore assume that Bernard Lord's political career is now over. Should Harper lose his majority, who can the Federal Tories turn too?

Also, can the New Brunswick result be attributed to a protest vote against the Harper government? That's just one of the fun questions we can all ask tomorrow.

Coyne Denounces Iggy

Missed this one previously, but Andrew Coyne, who earlier this year was saying nice things about the Ignatieff Lib leadership bid, has abandoned poor Iggy over his constitutional stance:

But now Mr. Ignatieff has promised such [constitutional] recognition to Quebecers, and if elected leader I have no doubt he would feel honor bound to abide by it. Even if, as he says, "constitutional review is for the future," he would have succeeded in establishing it as the latest of Quebec's "minimal demands," cemented by the fabled "Quebec consensus," from which no federalist politician would dare deviate. It is a dangerous, destabilizing proposal, and it must go no further than this.

Which, I'm afraid, means Mr. Ignatieff's candidacy must do likewise. This is no mere ill-considered campaign stunt. It is the centerpiece of his platform, on a matter touching our very existence as a nation. It is, in short, a deal-breaker. If he is unprepared to repudiate this toxic notion, the Liberal party must repudiate him.

I think the general consensus is that Iggy is playing with fire on this issue. He has even pledged to address the "rural/urban divide", whatever the hell that is, via Constitutional changes. But it is nice to see a big gun like Coyne weighing in on the subject. I think Iggy supporters have been far too blase about the consequences of their boy's position. Reopening the Constitution could quite literally destroy this country. It should not be the kind of thing one does as an academic thought experiment.

Four More Canadian Dead

...outside of Kandahar on the same day as Victory is Declared in Kandahar Province. The attacker was one of those Taliban who had been driven from the area.

Operation Medusa was an exercise in futility. The insurgents have merely switched from military to guerilla tactics. According to this Globe article, they will soon switch back.

Ekos Poll: No Tory Majority

The raw numbers from The Star:

Tories: 38.7%
Liberals: 28.8%
NDP: 17%

And, bringing up the year, the Bloc Québécois has 8.4 per cent support and the Green Party 7 per cent.

Analysis, FWIW:

"Stephen Harper and his government are doing quite well," said EKOS president Frank Graves. "Harper himself has a solid approval rating and well over half of Canadians say his government has matched or exceeded expectations."

The EKOS poll differs from polls done earlier this summer, which had the Tories and Liberals closer together. But all the polls make it clear Harper has not been able to build upon his showing in the January election, especially in Quebec and Ontario.

Regionally, the news is that Harper has not broken through in Quebec, and the Libs. are looking a bit better with 19.7%. Similarly in Ontario, where the Libs lead with with 40.1 per cent of voter support. The Tories have 37.5 per cent, the NDP stands at 15.5 per cent and the Green Party holds 6.9 per cent.

On Afghanistan, the Star piece says only that support is "eroding". On CTV this morning, I believe I heard the numbers at 49% opposed and 36% in favor. That will probably deteriorate further, and quite quickly, if the four NATO soldiers killed today in Afghanistan turn out to be Canadians.

Muslims Make Pope Grovel! Should Canadians Force an Apology as Well?

Frankly, I hate violence, and I hate to see Muslims out there faking outrage and killing people and bombing churches whenever somebody criticizes their religion. But on the other hand, the latest Pope is such a noxious, charisma-less midget that I am kind of glad to see him brought low at the same time.

And he was uppity enough to Diss Canada the other day, too, for not being hard enough on gays and for supporting a woman's right to choose. Now, I'm not saying anyone should get violent, but I bet if every Canadian that read BigCityLib Strikes Back went out tonight, parked their car in front of a nearby Catholic Church, and put some early Madonna on the stereo--maybe "Like A Virgin"-- and cranked it to 11, we could have the local priesthood on the phone to the Vatican in minutes, begging for mercy! Soon we too could have our own official Papal Apologia! Maybe even some free coupons for next time we visit Vatican City! Maybe they have a roller-coaster over there!

What say you, loyal minions?













THIS COULD BE YOU, BUT WITH MADONNA'S LIKE A VIRGIN PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND!!!