When I was in Maine with my kids, we sang this at the beach.  Seemed to fit.

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Ian Davey is my friend, and I have tons of friends at the Sun.

Ian was obviously – and I mean, front-page, 72-point font obviously – making a joke. He, and his remarkable Dad before him, have been long-time Sun readers.  In fact, Red Leaf founder Keith Davey placed more advertising in the Sun, over the years, than practically any ad exec you can name.

I know Ian well enough to know that he meant no offence. I also know a few Sun editorialists know that, too.

The universe balances out, with the Sun at the centre of it.

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“Diversity is not my priority.”

You can’t make this stuff up. Swear to God.

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Almost ten years.

Hard to forget that day, that week.

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It’s pretty hard for us Libs to be too critical about the Quebec City arena deal. After all, we turned government on its head to assist the Winnipeg Jets (ouch) and do the Manley NHL thing (double ouch).

So I wish the federal government bonne chance.

They’ll need it.

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Two of Rob Ford’s most eager activists/campaign workers are Arnie Lemaire and Kathy Shaidle.  Lemaire runs a Muslim-hating web site called “Blazing Cat Fur” that, most recently, ran a contest encouraging people to send in cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, inter alia, as a pig – and regularly calls for an end to Muslim immigration. Shaidle – who happens to be Lemaire’s wife, and oversees a white supremacist web site called “Five Feet of Fury” – has called Muslim children “parasites,” Islam “fucking retarded…[for] ungrateful beligerent foreign savages…a sick, sick religion,” and said this about Muslim Pakistani immigrants: “most of them can’t even read…What we really need to do is stop immigration from Pakistan and other crazy Muslim countries filled with illiterate, violent tribal peasants…”

For weeks, Shaidle and Lemaire have been agitating for Rob Ford, and have even been at the forefront of his online campaign strategy (as here).  Their association with him and his campaign cannot be denied.  And nor have I found any evidence that the Ford campaign has in any way denounced Lemaire or Shaidle.  Instead – and as in the “investigation” of the Toronto Star, which Ford loathes – they are clearly working in lockstep.

Which brings us to us one of the biggest stories in the world this week, “Reverend” Terry Jones plans to burn copies of the Qu’ran on September 11.

That vile act has been condemned by our Prime Minister, the President of the United States, the Pentagon, the Vatican, Glenn Beck, and pretty much everyone else.  Everyone recognizes that Jones’ plans will cause an extraordinary amount of trouble – and quite literally put allied troops in danger in Afghanistan.

But has Rob Ford?  Why hasn’t he condemned Shaidle and Lemaire, instead of permitting them to sell Ford campaign swag?

Why won’t he condemn Lemaire’s most-recent posting, wherein “Blazing Cat Fur” shows the Qu’ran being burned – and in which he says the opposition to Jones’ plans are “sickening,” quote unquote.

Reading this, and the implications of it, I expect Rob Ford will now scramble to denounce the Qu’ran-burning – and frantically distance himself from the likes of Lemaire and Shaidle.

But the question remains: why hasn’t he done so before now?

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“…one point has become perfectly clear: Smitherman is running aimlessly through political no man’s land; he won’t survive out there for long.” (Spacing Toronto, John Lorinc, Sept. 9)

“…he’ll never out-do Ford, but his eagerness to try will alienate the centre-of-the-road voters he should be assiduously courting.” (Spacing Toronto, John Lorinc, Sept. 9)

“Given that Smitherman seems determined to cede vast tracts of his political messaging to Ford, I’m guessing there are now thousands of voters — many living in the older core areas – who no longer have any idea whom to support.” (Spacing Toronto, John Lorinc, Sept. 9)

“But if Smitherman and his team were paying attention for the past two or three years, they would have recognized that the…“war on waste” message took precedence.” (Toronto Star, Royson James, Sept. 9)

“He could have owned this issue. Now, all he has left is a risky gambit that might confuse voters.” (Toronto Star, Royson James, Sept. 9)

“Now, as the Toronto mayoralty heads into the final weeks and an Oct. 25 voting day, Smitherman is struggling to create a persona, an easily digestible vision of what he stands for.” (Toronto Star, Royson James, Sept. 9)

“When it was pointed out to [Smitherman] that he was sounding all too much like Ford — who has pledged to do away with both the Land Transfer and Personal Vehicle Taxes plus many councillor perqs — he insisted he is THE ONE with experience managing “substantial” budgets.” (Toronto Sun, Sue Ann Levy, Sept. 7)

“But let’s not forget that this is the same guy who in his maiden speech to the Board of Trade and in subsequent interviews last December — when the polls put him on top — said he would not touch the land transfer or personal vehicle taxes” (Toronto Sun, Sue Ann Levy, Sept. 7)

“From the beginning, his campaign has suffered from a bewildering incoherence…he seems to want the job desperately because … well, because he wants the job desperately. What, exactly, he would do with it if elected is less clear.” (Globe and Mail, Marcus Gee, Sept.8)

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…as debunked by Norm Spector, here.

That’s not all: here’s the head of the CRTC – Konrad von Finckenstein, a man who was a plenty-powerful mandarin in the Chretien-Martin years, too – dispensing with the grassy knoll conspiracy theorists:

“I would like to categorically state that no one at any level of government has approached me about the Sun TV application, the appointment of the CRTC’s vice-chair of broadcasting, or my own mandate. Quebecor’s application is being treated according to the CRTC’s well-established processes.”

“Categorically.” When someone like von Finckenstein deploys language like that, it means something.

George Soros and Margaret Atwood, presumably, could not be reached for comment.

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