Rush Limbaugh and his chauffeur were out driving in the country and accidentally hit and killed a pig that had wandered out on a country road. Limbaugh told the chauffeur to drive up to the farm and apologize to the farmer.  They drove up to the farm, the chauffeur got out and knocked on the front door and was let in. He was in there for what seemed hours. When he came out, Limbaugh asked why his driver had been there so long. "Well, first the farmer shook my hand, then he offered me a beer, then his wife brought me some cookies, and his daughter showered me with kisses!" explained the driver. "What did you tell the farmer?" Limbaugh asked. The chauffeur replied, "I told him that I was Rush Limbaugh's driver and I'd just killed the pig." 

John Ashcroft was another cog in the right-wing nutjob US administration of George W. Bush.  As US Attorney General he was pat of numerous repressions of the freedom of American citizens and of any person visiting the United States.  All in the, publicly stated, name of protecting Americans. In truth Ashcroft and the rest of the Bush administration was simply going about their business of keeping the US population controlled through fear.  Oh I’m sure they did actually stop some threats and attacks, but the way they went about it did damage to the US culture and reputation that will take a generation to repair.  This fear allowed Bush and his cronies to make sweeping cultural and economic changes designed primarily to financially benefit Bush’s friends and allies. All this is common knowledge though.  I’m just rambling on in the pretence of generating some background story for the picture. In the midst of it all, someone took offense to Mr. Ashcroft’s supposed problems with the statue of the “Spirit of Justice”.  ...

I don't know what it is about Rob Ford that irks me so. Could be any number of things. The fact that he's such a die-hard conservative doesn't immediately colour his character for me, but it does make me wary. The hypocrisy? Perhaps, that's a big irritant for me usually. Is it that he seems so backward to me, as I'm coming from the progressive heartland of Calgary? It's not even that he's an arrogant turd ball. It's that he knows he's an arrogant turd ball and strives to contain it because he knows it won't sit well with the public. But sometimes it slips out ... Case in point, again: Mr. Ford is ambushed on his property by the CBC's formerly hilarious although less hilarious in recent years fake news show This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The details of his most recent spoiled frat boy antics are readily available on the Internet: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/10/27/rob-ford-911-call.html?cmp=rss http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/10/27/rob-ford-makes-a-bad-situation-worse/ http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1076717--ford-swore-at-911-dispatcher-report?bn=1 ... oh what the heck, there are so many sources: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=rob+ford+9-1-1 Now my point is not that Ford has to expect ...

Ok, finally my retort to Steven Britton. I would like to thank my honourable colleague for the comments.    :)    Sorry, possibly too much CPAC recently.    Firstly: Liberalism being socialism.  A common trick of the Conservative spin machine.  It’s fairly well established in Conservative and moderate circles that Socialism is “bad”.  Therefore associating Liberals and socialists makes the cognitive, if not intellectual, link between the two. The realities are of course quite different.  Socialism began as a workers movement, attempting to put the power of industry into the hands of the people.  As socialism changed it became more well known for being a government advocating or legislating power of industry to the workers.  This is really social democracy, the trend of controlled capitalism so that workers rights are protected by the government in the creation of a welfare state. (Sidebar: It’s really not fair at all to suggest that what people have come to know as “communists” are in fact socialists or even close.  The majority of communist regimes in the 20th century, and those that continue to exist today, ...

The current tactics from the Harper Government are pretty clear: divide and conquer. By giving voice and ear to the NDP on budget matters, while not providing the same opportunity to the Liberals, Bloc or Green Party, the Conservatives are propping up the visibility and perceived power of the NDP. The public is being kept well in the loop about the NDP’s involvement in budget talks, something that can only cause the public in general to believe that the NDP has measureable sway over the situation. If the NDP had decided to support the Conservatives on their budget this may have drawn new voters to the NDP whenever the next Federal election does happen. Since the party has announced that they will not prop of the Government they may also see a jump in the polls on the perception that they stood up for what was right, regardless of the concessions offered by the Government budget. Either way a short term win for the NDP, one that Jack Layton could potentially turn into a longer term improvement in ...