From WSj

Gov. Palin, there has been quite a bit of discussion about your perceived lack of foreign policy experience, and I want to give you your chance,” the questioner said. “If you could please respond to that criticism and give us specific skills that you think you have to bring to the White House to rebut that or mitigate that concern.”

To which the response was:

Palin replied at first by saying that opponents look for things to criticize her about because she is a “Washington outsider.” As for her credentials, she did not offer anything specific but asserted she will be prepared for the job by the time she assumes it — suggesting, perhaps, that the four months between now and then will add to her knowledge.

“As for foreign policy, you know I think that I am prepared and I know that on Jan. 20, if we are so blessed as to be sworn into office as your president and vice president, certainly we’ll be ready. I’ll be ready. I have that confidence. I have that readiness.”

Yes… she actually said that.  When asked for specific skills that she would bring to the White House she said that she would be ready by January 20th.  This is from the woman whom Sen. John McCain is trying to convince us is ready to lead the country at the drop of a hat.

Sen. McCain, I believe you have made a serious mistake.  It’s not just in choosing Gov. Palin as your running mate.  It’s not just running some of the most despicable attack ads against Sen Obama that I have ever seen.  It’s not even going on TV and telling the world that your ads are factual and you don’t regret a single word.  Your mistake is in believing that the American People are stupid.

Every major news organization from Fox on the right to MSNBC on the left has questioned the amount of experience and readiness of your running mate.  Every major news organization from Fox to MSNBC has called your ads over the top and false.

And now Palin herself can not manage to give one example of her skills in response to a lowball question tossed to her from a supporter.  Stop lying to us Senator.  You’re not good at it.  We all know you’re doing it.  We are not stupid; and frankly I don’t want a President who thinks I am.

Hmm… why don’t you get right to it and call him a pinko.

I’ve been watching Countdown recently on MSNBC.COM.  There’s something about it that I really enjoy.  I think it’s because it’s Fox Gnus for liberals.  Still, I find them amusing.  Kinda like my new Fox Gnus picture.  It’s a fairly popular joke about fox, but I couldn’t find a picture for it, so I made my own.  I also like Faux News, but that didn’t quite fit with the cute animals look I wanted.  That being said, now I need to find some image for MSNBC.  I’m trying to decide between the following two:

I’m kinda thinking the one on the left, it’s a bit more subtle.  If you have any thoughts let me know.  Or show me a better silly picture for MSNBC.

I first discovered my only real religion as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto. I was not alone in taking a political ideology as a virtual faith. In our small embattled group was a transplanted American who, when sufficiently plastered at our regular Saturday night socials, could be counted on to declare to all and sundry: “I love socialism.”

Gerald Caplan wrote this in the Globe and Mail this Saturday.  It was the beginning to a lofty thesis (change word).  Discussing the beginning of the CCF, now called the NDP, Caplan explains the importance of the Regina Manifesto.  Beyond calling for things like respect for minorities it has two major thrusts.

Under a CCF government, the state, the institutional embodiment of The People, would quickly take ownership of all banks and insurance, transportation and communications companies. Mining, pulp and paper and the distribution of milk, bread, coal and gasoline, industries “in which exploitation, waste, financial malpractices are particularly prominent” would follow soon after. Very heady stuff.

and two

the establishment in Canada of a Co-operative Commonwealth in which the principle regulating production, distribution and exchange will be the supplying of human needs and not the making of profits. We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a social order from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated … and in which genuine democratic self-government based upon economic equality will be possible.”

Basically it calls for government run businesses in all areas which are key to the survival of the country, or which operate in ways wich do not coincide with the CCF’s mandate, and to change the way businesses and government operate from a capitalist model to a socialist model.

First off.  I agree that pure capitalism tends to make a complete mess of things.  That said, non-democratic socialism makes just as big of a mess.  The key to either system is a strong democratic leadership.

Caplan goes on to say that only a few of the goals of the CCF were ever realized: minimum wage, unemployment insurance, pensions, and socialized health care.  All of which I believe are part of what makes Canada amazing.  A minimum wage in Canada that goes from a low of $7.75 all the way up to $10, and averaging about $8.50 rather than the American’s minimum wage of $5.85 (increasing to $7.25 in two years) with the highest minimum wage at $8.07 With their average being about $6.25.

Today, no progressive party in the Western world embraces anything more socialistic than a modest welfare state complemented by social liberalism, as antidotes to market economics and social conservatism.

I read that and thought: “I kinda like social liberalism”  I see the government as a system of checks and balances not just of itself, but of the whole system.  It’s not centrism, as it supports government run programs and government regulations, but it still allows free enterprise.

Caplan ends his essay with a call for the NDP to “Instead of playing arcane parliamentary games and manoeuvring to replace the Liberals, the NDP needs to restore the “New” in its name and its ideas. We need to prove that being a perennial minority party is not a wasted exercise.”

I fully agree.  The NDP has been especially effective in the house for many years regardless of it’s small numbers.  It has begun establishing itself as the actual opposition in the house recently, and has made some very shrewd decisions in the past.  But as much as the NDP would like to be the official opposition, they don’t need to be.  They are making more of a difference right now than either of the other opposition parties.

Here is my difference with Caplan though.  Canada has been a capitalist nation, though one tempered by socialism, for a fairly long time.  Our major influence tends to be from the USA and not from Europe.  Based on the NDP never getting more than 20% of the vote in Canada I think it’s safe to say that people aren’t very comfortable with the NDP.  Whether this is from transferring their animosity from provincial NDP parties to the federal one, a fear of socialism, or even just not believing that the NDP has the ability to lead doesn’t matter.  What matters is that the NDP’s platform is not being accepted.  So yes, the NDP needs to reinvent itself.

The NDP needs to back away from its historical belief in government run industry.  Instead it needs to be seen as a watchdog, examining corporations and proposing regulations.  Rather than being seen as someone who wants to run Canadian corporations, thus being seen as just as bad, they need to be seen as a protector of the Canadian people from those corporations.   The NDP also needs to stop being seen by everyone as the party for unions.  For some reason unions are now being looked on as just another type of government.  People who take your money and claim to give you services in response.  Though this isn’t accurate, it is how they are often viewed.  Instead the NDP needs to be seen as a party for everyone, stepping back from their union focus.

Or they could continue as the #3 party.  Granted they do very good work as the #3 party, but I’m sure they would like to be higher.  The question is, how much do they want to stick to their historical roots, and how much do they want to be able to help Canadians.  Because of the parties currently in the house they seem to be doing the best job.  And no, I don’t vote NDP.  But every time they do something I get a bit closer.

the Seattle Times

It’s good to be reminded that politics don’t happen in a vacuum.  President Bush has been very vocal in his opposition to withdrawal dates and time tables.  McCain, while less vocal, has also intimated that he doesn’t want to set any dates or timetables, but rather wants to wait till everything’s taken care of, then look at withdrawal plans.

From the Iraqi perspective it must look more like a occupation than a help.  Remember, these are democratically elected representatives.  If their people don’t like what they do they won’t get elected next  year.  Letting a foreign power talk loudly about never leaving your country, and bickering over when or if timetables should be established probably doesn’t sit well with those in charge.  Now instead of backing down and letting the Americans dictate their own military role, the Iraqis have stepped in and are making their desires known.  Desires that seem to be more in step with Obama’s concept of slow withdrawal than McCain’s concept of stay till sometime in the future.

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

New data from a large government survey show that by every measure, the decade long decline in sexual activity among high-school students leveled off between 2001 and 2007 and the increase in condom use by teens flattened in 2003.

The article also comments on previous reports saying

…that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease and that the teen birthrate has increased for the first time in 15 years…

And further

“Since we’ve started pushing abstinence, we have seen no change in the numbers on sexual activity…. The other piece of it is abstinence education spends a good amount of time bashing condoms. So it’s not surprising, if that’s the message young people are getting, that we’re seeing condom use start to decrease.”

And finally

The proportion of teenagers reporting having sexual intercourse rose steadily through the 1970s and 1980s, fueling a sharp rise in teen pregnancy. The trend reversed around 1991. At the same time, more sexually active teens started using condoms and other forms of contraception. Together, the trends have pushed the U.S. teen-pregnancy rate to historic lows.

Well. It seems that abstinence only sex-ed has had the opposite effect of what was hoped for. Instead of continuing to decrease the teen-pregnancy rate it has helped to increase the rate by providing poor information on any paths other than absolute abstinence.

It is impossible to force someone to your way of thinking. I agree that reminding students that abstinence is the only fool proof way of avoiding pregnancy is a good thing. However, you cannot assume that everyone who hears that message will be abstinent. Thus it is important to teach students about as many working methods of birth control and STD prevention as possible, and also how well they work.

Ok everyone, it’s time to start teaching students about sex properly. Yes, abstinence is good, but not everyone will follow that path. Thus we must teach students how to protect themselves.

The only way to completely avoid death when riding a motorcycle is to not ride one. But since a lot of people enjoy motorcycles, perhaps we should teach how to ride one safely as well.

I was watching question period today. It was more rowdy than normal, and not a lot of interest happened. The most important part was what happened right after question period. The government house leader said that key members of the Aboriginal community in Canada will not be invited to sit in the house for the official government apology for the residential schools. They will instead have to be seated in the upper galleries as observers. Basically what this amounts to is that the Conservatives want to apologize for a dark mark upon Canadian history (a laudable goal), but they don’t want to have to look at those they are apologizing to…. Gee, this sounds like a wonderful thumbing of their collective noses at the Aboriginal community.

This has been, by all accounts, an historic race.  We have set a new bar for future primaries.  My opponent has been a strong contender, and has done more than any of us could have imagined.  Thank you for the oportunity to compete agants you.  However.  All good things must come to an end, and so must our rivalry.  It is time for the Democratic party to come together and heal old wounds.  It is time for the Democratic party to present a united front against the Republican war machine.   It is time for all right thinking people to stand up for their rights, and the rights of others.  It’s time for everyone to unite under the Democratic banner and take this to the White House its self.

John McCain has shown himself to be opposed to the core things that all right thinking people desire: health, a strong economy, and peace.  He has shown that a McCain White House would be identical to a Bush White House, and that’s not what we want in a president.

It is my belief, then, that both Sen. Obama and I must come together to fight against McCain’s vision of 8 more years of the same.  Therefore I would like to take this time to respectfuly and graciously ask for Sen. Obama to step out of the race.

These six months of primaries have shown one thing: nothing has changed.  In December I was believed to be the strongest candidate.  I am still the strongest candidate.  Nothing has changed.  You might see the numbers stacked against me, but know this: I am the only Democratic candidate who can win in November.  Primary results mean nothing.  What matters is experience, and I have that.

Thank you, and I look forward to having Sen. Obama as my Vice President.

Yes, the above was a joke.  I hope you enjoyed it.