In a futile attempt to inject something other than primary madness into Daily Kos this morning--although this week has been better than most in terms of insanity--I wanted to take a moment and reflect on the start of Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica.

The first episode of the long awaited Season 4 airs tonight on SciFi, although you can view "He that Beliveth in Me" online at the SciFi website starting at noon.

Would this count as live-blogging?  Considering it's been 45 minutes since the polls closed here in Alberta and every major news outlet has called the election for Ed Stelmach's Conservatives, I have a hard time considering what I'm doing now as anything more than a post-mortem.

We need John Edwards.  We Need Hillary Clinton.  We need Barack Obama.  We also need Howard Dean, Chris Dodd and Al Gore.  We need Kucinich and Richardson.

Why?

Because none are perfect, but all together are the perfect cure for what ails America.

Driving into work this morning I heard an interesting piece on the Radio.  First let me be clear: I was listening to CBC Radio--which to most conservatives in Alberta is just to the left of Stalin.  That said, I find it 'fair and balanced' myself--even if it's sometimes right-leaning.  It's Alberta after-all.

Alberta == Texas North.

It wasn't much of a surprise then when I heard about this:
Alberta Government Agency Spies on Montana Citizens.

Follow me below the fold for more cloak and dagger goodness...

(Cross-posted to A Creative Revolution)

DailyKos attracts a lot of US Senators.  From the likes of John Kerry and Russ Feingold to Hillary Clinton and Patrick Leahy, numerous representative of the upper house post at and read this site.  

As I'm a Canadian Citizen, I don't have the capability to contact my Senator--well, at least not one that represents me in the US Senate.  Instead I want to use this diary as a way to reach out to the Senators who read and post here at DailyKos.  

I may not be an American, but I believe in America.  I believe in America as a place where the common man has a say in how his country is run.  I believe in the ideals set out by your founding fathers.  I believe in the rights and responsibilities outlined in your constitution.

And I believe you are on the verge of losing it.  As a friend, and neighbor, I would weep if that should happen.

Well, it looks like Fits won another one: http://www.cbc.ca/....  Conrad Black has been found guilty on three counts of fraud and one count of Obstruction of Justice.

Now I've been one of the few people left in Canada who didn't think Stockwell Day was a complete idiot.  I spent many years living in Alberta when he was a provincial cabinet minister, and to be honest, he wasn't that bad at it.  Sure, once he got on the National stage his lunacy began to show, but I still pulled for him.  He was like the little engine that couldn't--you just have to feel sorry for him.

But no longer.

Sometimes funny thoughts dance through your head when your feverish.  Thoughts like how all information is simply meta-information, because really--is there an atomic instance of information that cannot be used to describe another bit of information?

Okay, for someone like myself who's day job is Director of R&D at a Content Management System Software company, maybe you don't need to be feverish to consider such things--but it helps.

Then again, so does being a programmer.  In a lot of way's we're insane--and we're the guys to thank for all this wonderful blogging technology!

'Latte Liberal', 'Champagne Socialist', 'Liberal Elites'--how often have many of us here been categorized as such?  In the so-called 'Culture Wars' that rage across the political spectrum such terms are easily flung from the right--just as easily as we progressives and liberals have our own pejoratives for our opponents.

A couple of recent diaries got me thinking however (never a safe thing to do) about how often those who could be considered 'minority constituencies' on the left put many of the rest of us in the above categories.

Cross posted to The Next Agenda

"Defend the West: No to Wheat Board, No to Kyoto, No to Gun Registry"
           - Western Canadian Bumper Sticker

I am an expatriot Maritimer now living in Calgary, Alberta.  I've been here for nearly fifteen years, and have had the pleasure of seeing the growth of the 'Alberta Advantage' first hand.  Not surprisingly the growth of the Western Political movement (post-Mulroney Conservatism) has boomed with the oil patch--Alberta still bitterly remembers  Trudeau's NEP. Every sucessful Western Canadian politician in the last decade has played into the disaffection the West feels.  Upon Stephen Harper's election as PM, multitudes of Western conservatives claimed the 'West was In'.  But is it really?

Crossposted to The Next Agenda

While many bemoan the lack of civility in modern politics, those of us involved in the grassroots are often too busy trying to effect change to really consider what may be driving the grassroots right to hate the progressive left.

The match was certainly lit by those who sought to use the right-wing grassroots to propel them into positions of power, but as my old man used to say: an explosion requires oxygen, fuel and a spark.  Somewhere there was fuel to spark, and the result has been consuming oxygen ever since.

I grew up on Prince Edward Island.  PEI is Canada's smallest province, and is located not too far north east of Maine.  One of my best friends in University was from Hartford CT, and another from Boston.  I have spent many a night in a bar in Portland, Bangor, Boston, Hartford and other places in New England.  My province shares more history and has more in common with the New England states than we do with my current province of residence--Alberta.  

My province is very insular and conservative.   Politically, we may sail close to the wind most times, but we have a sense of when to tack into the wind and steer our own course when necessary.

Connecticut Democratic voters did this on Tuesday.

It may be telling that Bill O'Reilly hosts a FOX News show called 'The No-Spin Zone'.  If anything can be said of O'Reilly and FOX News, it is that spin is their Raison D'être as it were.

Today many, if not most, westerners gather their daily dosage of current events from television.  This medium--this message (to pull a page from Marshall McLuhan)--focuses on entertaining before informing, because after all, revenue is driven by commercials, which are driven by sales, which are driven by entertained people.

Beyond simple entertainment, 24-hour news aims to engage the viewer--not in any intellectual manner however, but immerse them in a realm of tension and hesitancy, where they can seek comfort in familiar things.

Why?

I was raised Roman Catholic, and while I have since drifted from the Church in many of my views, one phrase oft repeated during my childhood still rings true:

"Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin"