Announcements, alt music Friday
So, in a week, I'll be marrying the future Mrs. RevMod.

My strongest impression of my stag evening tonight was this music. Though you won't be seeing an attractive brunette's breasts in accompaniment, as I did, enjoy!

Tory trouble

Dan thinks last night's Calgary-Glenmore by-election could be the first indication that the political map in Alberta is about to change.

Obama calls Kanye West a "Jackass"



Which is, you know, totally obviously true, so if Obama finds himself having to beg for forgiveness for this, I'm going to be a little pissed off.

I hope this is the only question that's raised during the press conference at the end of the meeting with the Prime Minister today, which of course it will be.

The best part of this story is the President's choice of word. He seems so young and cool, presidential-wise, but then he channels my favourite elderly curmudgeon:



The next time a bunch of birthers show up for a thinly-veiled racist protest, he should totally go out on the front step of the White House and tell those kids to get off his lawn.

Cover

It's beginning to become clear that neither the NDP nor the Conservatives are particularly interested in going to an election right now.

The Tories are still attempting to write a negative script about Micheal Ignatieff, because neither the one where he's a foreigner (born in Kenya, perhaps?) nor the one where he's in bed with"the socialists and the separatists" seems to be sticking. I think they'd like more time to try to brand him. (It's also worth nothing that even as a negative narrative stuck much more successfully to Dion, it still wasn't enough to get the CPC the majority they crave so badly.)

The NDP have more seats than ever, and many in the party have very long memories of what's happened to these sizable caucuses in the past - Canadians tire of minority governments and all but wipe the NDP out trying to create a majority. I'm not sure this history is likely to repeat, but the psychological scars remain. Further, Canadians don't seem too keen on a fall election, so for the NDP to prop up the government for a few months or even issue to issue leaves the party smelling like a rose. Finally, when Harper next goes down his inevitable path of power-hungry jackassery, Layton gets to be the hero who pulls the plug on the government.

So that's what the changes to EI are all about - the Conservatives have to offer Layton some cover to hide behind, and adding a few extra weeks of payments for the formerly long-term employed is just about the tiniest fig leaf of an excuse to vote with the government as I could imagine. But given how badly the NDP wants to find an excuse, it'll probably do.

Gaffe-o-Meter 2009?

So, rather than wait for an inevitable bit of Tory pushiness or stupidity, Micheal Ignatieff has announced that the Liberals will vote against whatever confidence measure happens to wander up. I suppose he avoids being seen as indecisive or unwilling to pull the trigger, the way Dion was, but this blanket "Let's have an election" declaration seems to be distasteful to a lot of Canadians who would just as soon not unless there's some pressing reason.

Nonetheless, strategic errors aren't gaffes, and I don't count pre-writ foolishness anyway. But I guess what I'm saying is I'm starting to think I need to prepare for the latest gaffe-o-meter contest, including reminding myself who won the last prediction and making an donation to the candidate of his or her choice.

More gaffe announcements to come.