What James did manage to do was send the navy and army to Paraguay while the confederacy-in-the-making prepared for secession and Civil War, and he helped by sending all the weapons and ammo to them.

Love, C.

Summer Storms: Here's the paperwork.

What, you thought I was going to let the cat leave without me?

Anyone from Canada care to comment on this, at all?

And I also have less fear of a theocratic takeover, Scudder-style, in Canada than in the U.S. As a woman and someone who is openly non-Christian, I'd have essentially no chance of a normal life under such a regime (not that it would be much better for anyone else).

We have our own troubles up here with Conservatives. They do not need reinforcements.

In any case, Canadian Conservatives are almost leftists compared to the theokleptocrats we've got in the US now.

:)

But, like everywhere else, organizations for profit maximization are a major problem and will either eventually be banned or take over.

The thing that worries me is not so much the Conservatives -- though I would very much like to know who paid for Steven Harper's leadership run; he has flatly refused to say -- as the fight in the Liberals between pro-corporate, pro-ideological-purity, and urm, govern? factions. Both of the first two are actively harmful, and doing very well on the passionate intensity front.

It is at times like these that the deep and pervasive cynicism of my fellow Canadians is a great comfort to me.

*Well, what would you do if a pro-Choice Republican (really good in other ways too) ran against a so-called pro-Life Democrat (and a wild-eyed wacko to boot)? It was the early 80s, the Republicans were more liberal than the Democrats are now, and Michigan was and is a weird, scary political place.

*blinks* Aren't donations to politicians a matter of public record Up North?

Donations to politicans are very tightly controlled, with low maximum values. (This is one of the things the Conservatives don't like, but it would be political suicide to try to change it with a minority, and no one has managed to actually get them charged with ignoring some of those laws yet in any case, though that is grinding forward slowly and will probably eventually eat a party functionary or two.)

But if you are not a sitting MP, and you're running for leadership of a political party, no such controls apply; it's legally entirely internal to the party; no different, legally, from someone campaigning to be president of their local Elk Lodge. So someone or someones ponied up a couple-three millions of dollars, and Mr. Harper will not say who, nor release the records.

So someone owns him, and the political costs of not saying who are high, so my expectation is that even a fair chunk of the consistent Conservative voters would be appalled if they found out precisely who it was. (Carl Rove's dominatrix? Coalition of beet farmers? Scaife? Haliburton? One can speculate endlessly; the best bet is "oil-worshipping dominionists".)

Batter? McCain's making cookies?

Hmm, Gov Palin goes out moosehunting and McCain's staying home in the kitchn baking cookies?

I figured 'oil-worship' was the metaphor behind Prince of Darkness (by John Carpenter). That it featured Donald Pleasence as a priest is only a bonus.

McCain's staying home in the kitchn baking cookies?

Nah. He'd make something manly like chicken-fried steak. Won't catch him doing something girly like baking!

"oil-worshipping dominionists"

Ia! Ia! Shell Oil Fthag'n!

Notice, though, that McCain actually is standing in front of a green screen. This is to make Cobert's Green Screen Challenge easier for everyone.

I can see it now, "we'vre tried to get her in front of the people, but the, "liberal media" won't have her."

Oi.

This is another "Hillary wouldn't meet with the Gold Star Mothers" moment. Oprah publicly stated, long ago, that she wouldn't have any of the candidates on her show. And she hasn't.

"The item in today's Drudge Report is categorically untrue. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this Presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over."

I'm thinking the Federal bail-out of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will attract more attention?

Breaking news on the BBC at the moment.

We can only hope this little charade is lost in the fiasco of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.

Now is the time to bring the Keating Five back to life.

I don't see how that's supposed to work. I don't know if anyone in McCain's base would notice whether or not she'd ever been on Meet the Press or Face the Nation or any of the other Sunday Talking Heads shows, but pretty soon it's going to be obvious to the independents and undecideds.