Saturday, February 14, 2004
There's outrage
And for the first time in, well, 10 years, it looks like a Liberal scandal is sticking.
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And for the first time in, well, 10 years, it looks like a Liberal scandal is sticking.
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Friday, February 13, 2004
Who's minding the store in Ottawa?
The revelations out about our federal government this week are, well, disgusting. I don't think I've ever been as outraged at my own government as I am now. In the last 72 hours, we've learned of a triad of stupefying outrages:
1) USING OUR MONEY TO BUY VOTES AND REWARD FRIENDS IN QUEBEC: The Liberal government's vote-buying scheme in Quebec, where contracts totalling $100 million in federal funds for essentially doing nothing were doled out, as revealed in the scathing Auditor-General's report Tuesday. Paul Martin is continuing to deny he knew what was going on.
2) USING OUR MONEY TO PUNISH INNOCENT GUN OWNERS: The Liberal boondoggle gun registry has now cost taxpayers $2-billion so far, double the last government estimate, according to a CBC report. This is a program that was originally supposed to cost $2-million. Yes, that really does equal 1,000 times over-budget. How can anyone get away with this?
3) USING OUR MONEY FOR ADRIENNE CLARKSON AND FRIENDS' JUNKETS: There was a big outcry after it was revelead that a "circumpolar tour" for the Governor General and her friends would cost $1-million. It turns out that the bill is actually $5.3-million. That's right, $4-million more than expected for the vice-regal and 59 of her closest friends to tour the Arctic circle. (This apparently doesn't even include the cost of the air travel!)
TOTAL AMOUNT WASTED ON THESE THREE ITEMS: AT MINIMUM, $2.5 BILLION
That is not just embarassing, it is a total disgrace. They've done it before, but never to this scale and never so much at once. The question is, this time, will there be outrage?
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The revelations out about our federal government this week are, well, disgusting. I don't think I've ever been as outraged at my own government as I am now. In the last 72 hours, we've learned of a triad of stupefying outrages:
1) USING OUR MONEY TO BUY VOTES AND REWARD FRIENDS IN QUEBEC: The Liberal government's vote-buying scheme in Quebec, where contracts totalling $100 million in federal funds for essentially doing nothing were doled out, as revealed in the scathing Auditor-General's report Tuesday. Paul Martin is continuing to deny he knew what was going on.
2) USING OUR MONEY TO PUNISH INNOCENT GUN OWNERS: The Liberal boondoggle gun registry has now cost taxpayers $2-billion so far, double the last government estimate, according to a CBC report. This is a program that was originally supposed to cost $2-million. Yes, that really does equal 1,000 times over-budget. How can anyone get away with this?
3) USING OUR MONEY FOR ADRIENNE CLARKSON AND FRIENDS' JUNKETS: There was a big outcry after it was revelead that a "circumpolar tour" for the Governor General and her friends would cost $1-million. It turns out that the bill is actually $5.3-million. That's right, $4-million more than expected for the vice-regal and 59 of her closest friends to tour the Arctic circle. (This apparently doesn't even include the cost of the air travel!)
TOTAL AMOUNT WASTED ON THESE THREE ITEMS: AT MINIMUM, $2.5 BILLION
That is not just embarassing, it is a total disgrace. They've done it before, but never to this scale and never so much at once. The question is, this time, will there be outrage?
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Now that's a funny line...
From the opening lines of the Irving Kristol lecture, given by columnist Charles Krauthammer at the annual dinner of the American Enterprise Institute this week:
Hearing my checkered past recalled, I’m struck by how many places I have fled: Canada, the Democratic Party, and psychiatry. A trifecta of sorts. The reason I'm here, ladies and gentlemen, is that I have nowhere left to go.
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From the opening lines of the Irving Kristol lecture, given by columnist Charles Krauthammer at the annual dinner of the American Enterprise Institute this week:
Hearing my checkered past recalled, I’m struck by how many places I have fled: Canada, the Democratic Party, and psychiatry. A trifecta of sorts. The reason I'm here, ladies and gentlemen, is that I have nowhere left to go.
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Thursday, February 12, 2004
The Producers
I've just returned from seeing Mel Brooks' hit musical The Producers at the Canon Theatre in Toronto.
Wow. What a performance. Now I know why this won 12 Tony Awards.
I don't want to give anything away, because I'd encourage anyone who can to see it. I'll just say that 1) it is chockfull of underhanded jokes and ironies that political and history junkies will love; 2) it is wildly politically incorrect, sometimes almost pushing over the limit; and 3) hard to put this into words, but I hope you know what I mean: It is the most successful attempt I have ever seen at making fun of and making us laugh at some very serious and normally unfunny issues.
Brilliant lyrics. Hilarious characters. Brooks holds nothing back. He's a true genius. Go buy a ticket.
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I've just returned from seeing Mel Brooks' hit musical The Producers at the Canon Theatre in Toronto.
Wow. What a performance. Now I know why this won 12 Tony Awards.
I don't want to give anything away, because I'd encourage anyone who can to see it. I'll just say that 1) it is chockfull of underhanded jokes and ironies that political and history junkies will love; 2) it is wildly politically incorrect, sometimes almost pushing over the limit; and 3) hard to put this into words, but I hope you know what I mean: It is the most successful attempt I have ever seen at making fun of and making us laugh at some very serious and normally unfunny issues.
Brilliant lyrics. Hilarious characters. Brooks holds nothing back. He's a true genius. Go buy a ticket.
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Wednesday, February 11, 2004
I've been "TAPPED"
Thanks to my pal and former NY Sun Washington bureau co-conspirator Tim for this tip: The leftwing magazine The American Prospect has a blog called "Tapped" and writer Matthew Yglesias has bashed my review of Frum and Perle's An End To Evil . (Kudos to the good folks at AEI for posting it on their website, too.)
Yglesias makes an interesting point, but he misunderstood mine. I wrote in my book review that "The CIA's intelligence gathering was, as we now know since this book's publication, way off-base on Iraq's weapons capabilities." He interprets that as meaning that I thought the CIA overblew the Iraq threat. I can see why he thought that, but it wasn't really my intention.
In fact, I agree with Frum and Perle's position that over the years the CIA has massively underballed the Iraq threat. I should have pointed out that while their weapons estimates may have been "off-base," their intel gathering in other areas -- especially Saddam's links to organized terrorism and his own acts of terrorism -- was willfully ignorant. Also recall that, as former weapons inspector David Kay has noted, the CIA massively underestimated the advanced state of Libya and Iran's nuke programs.
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Thanks to my pal and former NY Sun Washington bureau co-conspirator Tim for this tip: The leftwing magazine The American Prospect has a blog called "Tapped" and writer Matthew Yglesias has bashed my review of Frum and Perle's An End To Evil . (Kudos to the good folks at AEI for posting it on their website, too.)
Yglesias makes an interesting point, but he misunderstood mine. I wrote in my book review that "The CIA's intelligence gathering was, as we now know since this book's publication, way off-base on Iraq's weapons capabilities." He interprets that as meaning that I thought the CIA overblew the Iraq threat. I can see why he thought that, but it wasn't really my intention.
In fact, I agree with Frum and Perle's position that over the years the CIA has massively underballed the Iraq threat. I should have pointed out that while their weapons estimates may have been "off-base," their intel gathering in other areas -- especially Saddam's links to organized terrorism and his own acts of terrorism -- was willfully ignorant. Also recall that, as former weapons inspector David Kay has noted, the CIA massively underestimated the advanced state of Libya and Iran's nuke programs.
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Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Grits 'n Tories
I think it would be cool if Canadians would revitalize the use of the terms "Grit" to describe a Liberal and "Tory" to describe a Conservative Party member. While the word Tory is still frequently used to describe British Conservatives and provincial PCs in Canada, there's some doubt as to whether or not the term will be adopted in the new merged federal Conservative Party. (John Ibbitson's column in the Globe and Mail was about this yesterday, I think.) Grit, on the other hand, has been MIA from the modern political lexicon for quite some time. I wonder why? (Warning: shameless self-promotion ahead) The title of the book I co-wrote in 2001 was Gritlock: Are the Liberals in Forever? and I remember a bunch of people, young ones especially, asking me what Grit meant. Just a thought. These are fun words.
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I think it would be cool if Canadians would revitalize the use of the terms "Grit" to describe a Liberal and "Tory" to describe a Conservative Party member. While the word Tory is still frequently used to describe British Conservatives and provincial PCs in Canada, there's some doubt as to whether or not the term will be adopted in the new merged federal Conservative Party. (John Ibbitson's column in the Globe and Mail was about this yesterday, I think.) Grit, on the other hand, has been MIA from the modern political lexicon for quite some time. I wonder why? (Warning: shameless self-promotion ahead) The title of the book I co-wrote in 2001 was Gritlock: Are the Liberals in Forever? and I remember a bunch of people, young ones especially, asking me what Grit meant. Just a thought. These are fun words.
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Monday, February 09, 2004
Keep your eye on this book. Or, buy it.
Andrew Breitbart, who five years ago now (wow, I'm getting old) hired me as a summer intern in Arianna Huffington's office in Los Angeles, is set to release his first book: Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon — The Case Against Celebrity. Andrew, who for the past few years has had the enviable job of being the second set of eyes and ears for Matt Drudge, is really going to make some waves with this.
I knew Andrew had been hard at work on this book, but wasn't sure of its contents. But it's a safe bet that any book with an endorsement from Ann Coulter saying "Rosemary's baby has grown up and is running Hollywood ... Hollywood, Interrupted describes the misogynist, pill-popping degenerates who now define American culture" is going to be an interesting read.
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Andrew Breitbart, who five years ago now (wow, I'm getting old) hired me as a summer intern in Arianna Huffington's office in Los Angeles, is set to release his first book: Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon — The Case Against Celebrity. Andrew, who for the past few years has had the enviable job of being the second set of eyes and ears for Matt Drudge, is really going to make some waves with this.
I knew Andrew had been hard at work on this book, but wasn't sure of its contents. But it's a safe bet that any book with an endorsement from Ann Coulter saying "Rosemary's baby has grown up and is running Hollywood ... Hollywood, Interrupted describes the misogynist, pill-popping degenerates who now define American culture" is going to be an interesting read.
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I just can't let it go
At last weekend's Avonlea Curling Club "Funspiel" our team (see picture below) was cheated out of second prize by these sorry clowns. We ended up tied 6-6 after regulation play, so a draw to the button contest was held to determine the winner.
Well, the other skip threw first, putting her rock barely over the hogline. I threw mine inches through the rings. They claimed (totally erroneously) that because their rock was in play and mine wasn't, they won. In fact, when no one hits the rings in a draw to the button contest the throwers must start again and re-throw. Despite this, the "winners" just walked off the ice and wouldn't re-throw. Oh well. They will be judged by Him!
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At last weekend's Avonlea Curling Club "Funspiel" our team (see picture below) was cheated out of second prize by these sorry clowns. We ended up tied 6-6 after regulation play, so a draw to the button contest was held to determine the winner.
Well, the other skip threw first, putting her rock barely over the hogline. I threw mine inches through the rings. They claimed (totally erroneously) that because their rock was in play and mine wasn't, they won. In fact, when no one hits the rings in a draw to the button contest the throwers must start again and re-throw. Despite this, the "winners" just walked off the ice and wouldn't re-throw. Oh well. They will be judged by Him!
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