To wit:

From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his successor John Turner increased public spending as a share of GDP by 40%, while the more recent Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin decreased it by 32%.

The message is clear: The idea that the left is more spendthrift and the right is more thrifty just does not stand up to scrutiny. A major study from the early 1990s looking at 15 industrialized countries over a period of 28 years draws a similar conclusion.

Wow, eh? I’m tweeting this!

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Ras Ritalin Boy (guitar), Jah Davey Snot (skins) and Sly Winkie (disembodied left hand, and frightening full frontal at the 2:30 mark) try to sound less white.  Punk rock, begone! Jah Strummer, behold!

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Fun read. (Even if he’s a gadfly of a columnist.)

Best line: the last one.

Also, I intend to mock Butts with the “svengali” appellation for the next decade or so.

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Surprise, surprise.

Breaking this thing up over two different weekends, in two different cities, was always a dumb, dumb idea.

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If I had an employee like that, I’d fire them. So would you.

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Mother, fetch me the smelling salts! I think I’m going to faint!

“But with the economy growing slowly, and even Alberta’s oil wealth underperforming, the Tories must now confront the possibility that their whole plan might not be achievable. A good place to start, and start immediately, would be softening the image. Bluntly, not coming across as such jerks.

That means no more omnibus bills rammed through Parliament. No more nickle and diming veterans. No more comparing the opposition to child pornographers (pretty much no more Vic Toews whatsoever, actually). No more helicopter rides back from fishing trips. No more pretty gazebos. No more shutting down your own MPs when they want to debate a contentious motion. If it’s at all possible to avoid the appearance of not caring about Africans dying of thirst, that’d be great, too. And let’s not even get started on Senator Brazeau.

None of the above issues are fatal in and of themselves. But they, and many more, add up.”

Yep. Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau today achieved the support of 120 per cent of Canadian voters. Film at eleven.

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Getting ready for tonight’s SFH session, and dug up this old Hot Nasties tune for us to try – Getawayfromme.

Boy, I was an angry young man.  (Who has become an angry old man.)

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As I have done for years – and as I have remembered since that day, when I was a boy in Dallas – today I remember the death of Martin Luther King.  As before, this segment from his most-remembered speech.

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Yaffe’s right – Trudeau has basically erased the Mulcair Dippers’ public profile.

But the process was underway well before Justin Trudeau became a leadership candidate. Bob Rae, and his caucus, have been punching above their weight for two years. The result – contrary to what I, and others, predicted – has been the Liberals soundly beating the NDP in media coverage.

And, now, the polls.

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