The Alberta Election: What Did We Learn?

Once again, the pollsters were wrong. Why this time? I'm glad you asked. Let's look at what happened during the last few days leading up to the election. On Saturday, based on poll results tabulated just after the Election Debate, the pollsters had the Wildrose up 41 percent to 32 percent for the Conservatives. By election time, the results had shifted 12 points resulting in a Conservative victory and a second place finish for the Wildrose.

Was there really a shift or did the pollsters have it wrong? My opinion, there really was a shift. For anyone who watched the debate on Thursday night, just 2 days before the release of the final polls, I suspect that you were just as shocked as I was when you heard the answer from Danielle Smith, leader of the Wildrose Party, when she was asked about climate change.

Wildrose leader Danielle Smith stated, to quote from The Canadian Press:

"There is still a debate in the scientific community," said Smith before being drowned out by a chorus of boos and catcalls from hundreds of people who attended a leaders debate outside CBC's downtown studio.

"And we're going to continue to watch the debate in the scientific community," she said raising her voice to be heard.

I was absolutely floored when I heard this. My dear friend, The Vickster, an avid supporter of the Reform Party, even conceded a few years back that climate change was real. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think even the American Republican Party now concedes the point. And Wildrose doesn't?

When I heard her statement and I heard the audience reaction, I turned to the Beauty and said "there goes the election". After the gay comments and the White is Better comment, I think that this was the straw that broke the camels back. 

This morning on the radio, I heard John Moore say that the lesson that Danielle Smith failed to learn from Stephen Harper was how to reign in the crazies and give the rest of the country comfort that they could be voted for. That's easy to say when your not #1 amongst the crazies. It wasn't a party yahoo who made the crazy remark in Alberta, it was the leader.

Crazy is as crazy does.

The Ballad of Mitt Romney and the Family Hound

Hope you all enjoy this one. It happens to be the first song (the Jed Clampett version) that I ever learned on banjo, and, trust me, it wasn't pretty.




Come and listen to my story bout a man named Mitt
Who decided one day to take the family on a trip
Now the family car, it only seated six
And that meant the dog was in a big fix

The roof that is, in a case and all, no fun at all

Well before you know they all jump into the car
And Mitt Jr. says, I sure hope we’re not going far
Mitt tells them all they are Canada bound
And this causes stomache problems for the family hound.

Loose bowels that is, oh oh

Now it’s time to think about the way that his mind works
He’s already proven he can be a real big jerk
He can’t plan a vacation for 6 people and a hound
So how can ever make the country fiscally sound

That’s the big question. No answer from these parts, that’s for sure

The Consequences of a Warm Winter in Ontario

TULIPS in March!



Lilies in March!



Hostas in March!

Wonderful!

However, while this is good news for my garden, what about Niagara Ice Wine. Here is what Adam Lechmere and Emily Pearce said in www.decanter.com:

In Niagara the Icewine harvest is in danger not only due to abnormally high temperatures but also because of significant rainfall during autumn.

Although most Niagara Icewine producers also make table wine, considerable rainfall forced growers to pick the thin-skinned Riesling grape early leaving nothing for Icewine.

Producers such as Cave Spring Cellars and Chateau des Charmes, which only use Riesling, have to sit this season out.

With 2011 being the smallest harvest in the past 11 years, and the major varietal – Riesling – out of the picture, many are expressing concerns about meeting demand in the future.

Paul Bosc, chairman and winemaker at Chateau des Charmes said, ‘Although missing a season can be compensated by in house reserves, two or three bad years could mean problems addressing the demands of the market.’

However, the region hasn’t given up hope. ‘It is too early to write the obituary for Niagara Icewine,’ Bosc said.

Meanwhile at prestigious producer Peller Estates Winery they are optimistic, as for a single evening this month temperatures fell to the required -10C, enabling a large portion of their grapes to be picked.

‘We are confident in our suppliers delivering the quantity and quality we need. One more good freeze and we will harvest the balance of our grapes,’ international sales manager Louise Wilson said.

Story by Adam Lechmere and Emily Pearce in Niagara

Courtesy of Decanter

www.decanter.com

A National Travesty: Why Can't the Courts Get Crimes Against Children Right

For those of you who don't know, Graham James, who was convicted of abusing Theo Fluery and his cousin Todd Holt when they were young hockey players under his guidance, was sentenced to two years in jail with day passes and parole available in six months. WHAT!
Why can't the courts get crimes against children right? I've never understood how these crimes don't rise to the level of attempted murder, for, in my opinion, the sex offender has stolen a large part of his victims' lives, perhaps all of it, as we've seen in many cases. And yet, the courts only hand down minimal sentences.
Is the problem within the court system, or within society?
For those of you who don't remember, it was just last month that the news media reported that a twice convicted Scout leader, David Michael Henley, was allowed into the Baden Powell Guild, a Scouts Alumni Association. And, it wasn't until the news media hounded the Scouts that they FINALLY admitted that it was a mistake. YA THINK!
I've often thought that the punishment for a crime should have some association with the amount of damage done to the victims of that crime. So, if you kill someone, perhaps you should also lose your freedom. Likewise, if you ruin the life of a child or in the case of Graham James, at least 2 children, perhaps your life should be ruined. Here are the National Institute of Health Statistics on how child abuse increases the odds of wrecking the lives of its female victims.

Does anyone really think that a crime that devastates its victims so horrifically only deserves a two year sentence?

What if Sheldon Adelson supported Romney?

Ask yourself how best Sheldon Adelson could spend his campaign contribution monies if he was a Romney supporter. Well, the obvious is superpac money to the Romney campaign. And, what's the second best thing that Romney has going for him in this nomination race. That's right, splitting the socially conservative vote so that he emerges as the winner ever time with less than the majority of votes.
So, just before Super Tuesday, Mr. Adelson contributed another $5 million to keep Gingrich in the race. And, the effect, Romney claims victory (just barely) in Ohio. What a great way to spend your money to achieve a Romney victory.
Interesting.
Yikes, now I'm bummed. In looking for an Adelson picture to put on this post, I goggled his name and found an article from the Las Vegas Sun dated today saying the same thing...

Kony 2012 (Invisible Children)

Here is something that we all need know about, a horrible tragedy that is going on in Uganda. Joseph Kony, the leader of a militant group called the Lord's Resistance Army is a war criminal in Northern Uganda who is enslaving children to further his own objectives. At the least, each of us needs to know what is going on in the world and at the most, perhaps some of us will somehow be inspired to make a difference. So, below is a 27 minute video that tells the story. And, to learn more, go to www.kony2012.com or look up Lord's Resistance Army on wikipedia.

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

David Brooks, N.Y. Times Column: The Possum Republicans

David Brooks wrote a very insightful Op-Ed that appeared in print on February 28, 2012, on page A25, with the headline: The Possum Republicans. Mr. Brooks is a well respected Conservative columnist with ideas worth listening to.

The article speaks about what has happened to the Republican Party and is worth the read. You can find it at
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/opinion/brooks-the-possum-republicans.html?_r=1&src=recg
NOTE:I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO HYPERLINK IT, SO, PLEASE CUT AND PASTE, or read my cut and paste version here....



Politicians do what they must to get re-elected. So it’s not unexpected that Republican senators like Richard Lugar and Orrin Hatch would swing sharply to the right to fend off primary challengers.

As Jonathan Weisman reported in The Times on Sunday, Hatch has a lifetime rating of 78 percent from the ultra-free market Club for Growth, but, in the past two years, he has miraculously jumped to 100 percent and 99 percent, respectively. Lugar has earned widespread respect for his thoughtful manner and independent ways. Now he’s more of a reliable Republican foot soldier.

Still, it is worth pointing out that this behavior is not entirely honorable. It’s not honorable to adjust your true nature in order to win re-election. It’s not honorable to kowtow to the extremes so you can preserve your political career.

But, of course, this is exactly what has been happening in the Republican Party for the past half century. Over these decades, one pattern has been constant: Wingers fight to take over the party, mainstream Republicans bob and weave to keep their seats.

Republicans on the extreme ferociously attack their fellow party members. Those in the middle backpedal to avoid conflict. Republicans on the extreme are willing to lose elections in order to promote their principles. Those in the mainstream are quick to fudge their principles if it will help them get a short-term win.

In the 1960s and ’70s, the fight was between conservatives and moderates. Conservatives trounced the moderates and have driven them from the party. These days the fight is between the protesters and the professionals. The grass-roots protesters in the Tea Party and elsewhere have certain policy ideas, but they are not that different from the Republicans in the “establishment.”

The big difference is that the protesters don’t believe in governance. They have zero tolerance for the compromises needed to get legislation passed. They don’t believe in trimming and coalition building. For them, politics is more about earning respect and making a statement than it is about enacting legislation. It’s grievance politics, identity politics.

Of course, the professional politicians don’t want to get in the way of this torrent of passion and resentment. In private, they bemoan where the party is headed; in public they do nothing.

All across the nation, there are mainstream Republicans lamenting how the party has grown more and more insular, more and more rigid. This year, they have an excellent chance to defeat President Obama, yet the wingers have trashed the party’s reputation by swinging from one embarrassing and unelectable option to the next: Bachmann, Trump, Cain, Perry, Gingrich, Santorum.

But where have these party leaders been over the past five years, when all the forces that distort the G.O.P. were metastasizing? Where were they during the rise of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck? Where were they when Arizona passed its beyond-the-fringe immigration law? Where were they in the summer of 2011 when the House Republicans rejected even the possibility of budget compromise? They were lying low, hoping the unpleasantness would pass.

The wingers call their Republican opponents RINOs, or Republican In Name Only. But that’s an insult to the rhino, which is a tough, noble beast. If RINOs were like rhinos, they’d stand up to those who seek to destroy them. Actually, what the country needs is some real Rhino Republicans. But the professional Republicans never do that. They’re not rhinos. They’re Opossum Republicans. They tremble for a few seconds then slip into an involuntary coma every time they’re challenged aggressively from the right.

Without real opposition, the wingers go from strength to strength. Under their influence, we’ve had a primary campaign that isn’t really an argument about issues. It’s a series of heresy trials in which each of the candidates accuse the others of tribal impurity. Two kinds of candidates emerge from this process: first, those who are forceful but outside the mainstream; second, those who started out mainstream but look weak and unprincipled because they have spent so much time genuflecting before those who despise them.

Neither is likely to win in the fall. Before the G.O.P. meshugana campaign, independents were leaning toward the G.O.P. But, in the latest Politico/George Washington University Battleground Poll, Obama leads Mitt Romney among independents by 49 percent to 27 percent.

Leaders of a party are supposed to educate the party, to police against its worst indulgences, to guard against insular information loops. They’re supposed to define a creed and establish boundaries. Republican leaders haven’t done that. Now the old pious cliché applies:

First they went after the Rockefeller Republicans, but I was not a Rockefeller Republican. Then they went after the compassionate conservatives, but I was not a compassionate conservative. Then they went after the mainstream conservatives, and there was no one left to speak for me.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on February 28, 2012, on page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: The Possum Republicans.