The federal Liberals have defeated a Conservative anti-racism motion so they can pass their own version, which condemns Islamophobia.

Conservative MP David Andersons motion to condemn all forms of systemic racism, religious intolerance, and discrimination failed in a vote of 165-126 in the House of Commons, after Liberal MPs, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, voted against it.

The Tories introduced their own anti-racism motion in response to Liberal MP Iqra Khalids M-103, which calls on the government to condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination and to study the issue at the heritage committee and make recommendations. For procedural reasons, the Liberal motion will not be voted on until April.

Heritage Minister Mlanie Joly said Tuesday that hate crimes against Muslims have more than doubled since 2012 and reiterated the governments support for Ms. Khalids motion.

The term Islamophobia is extremely important as it is discrimination against the Muslim community, Ms. Joly told reporters after the vote.

The Conservatives have expressed concerns that Islamophobia is not defined in Ms. Khalids motion and said it could stifle freedom of speech, including criticisms of Islam. They also say its more inclusive to treat all religions equally, despite the fact that the House of Commons already unanimously condemned all forms of Islamophobia in an NDP motion last fall, although it wasnt a recorded vote.

Mr. Andersons motion, which mirrors in large part that of the Liberals, condemns all forms of systemic racism, religious intolerance, and discrimination of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, and other religious communities, but does not specifically mention Islamophobia.

It also states that Canadian society is not immune to the climate of hate and fear exemplified by the recent and senseless violent acts at a Quebec City mosque, referring to last months deadly attack on a Quebec City mosque that left six men dead.

Liberal MP Frank Baylis, who introduced an e-petition last year on which Ms. Khalids motion is based, said if the Conservative version passed, the Liberal one would be considered moot. Both motions make similar recommendations, including that the heritage committee study the issue and develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating discrimination, collect data to contextualize hate-crime reports and report back to the Commons within eight months.

The NDP, Bloc Qubcois and the Green Partys Elizabeth May supported the Conservative motion, although the New Democrats say theyll also support the Liberal one. Of the nine sitting Conservative MPs running for leader, only Michael Chong has said he will support M-103.

Representatives from the Canadian Muslim Forum, a non-profit organization established in 1993 to represent the Muslim community on public policy issues, urged parliamentarians to pass the Liberal version of the motion, calling it very courageous.

We are a community under siege, said Samer Majzoub, the forums president.

He said the Conservatives reaction has, directly or indirectly, created waves of Islamophobia all over the country.

This motion, unfortunately came as trying to delegitimize the M-103, and trying really to degrade this motion, Mr. Majzoub told reporters Tuesday before the vote.

Conservative MP Grard Deltell said he disagrees with the characterization that the Conservative motion would have delegitimized M-103.

But, he said, We respect their liberty of speaking, and we respect also the liberty of religion. This is what our motion was all about. And unfortunately, the Liberals decided to vote against.

On Thursday, the Ontario legislature will vote on Liberal MPP Nathalie Des Rosierss motion, which denounces attacks, threats of violence and hate crimes against Muslims and condemns all forms of Islamophobia.

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Browns office said he will vote in favour of the motion and has instructed his caucus to do the same.

With a report from Les Perreaux

Follow Laura Stone on Twitter: @l_stone

Excerpt from:

Liberals vote down Conservative anti-racism motion - The Globe and Mail

EL PASO Beto ORourke has long believed that the closer you get to the Mexican border, the less you fear it. So on a recent afternoon, the Democratic congressman who may challenge Ted Cruz for his U.S. Senate seat walked into Juarez for lunch.

The mere name of this Mexican city conjures images of bloodthirsty cartels or seedy red-light districts the kind of place, some have argued, against which the United States should seal itself with a big, beautiful wall.

ORourke is strongly opposed to that plan. Among other things, it would make it harder to visit the bar he took his wife to on their first date.

It was a little bit of a test, to see if she was up for an adventure, he said, ducking into the dimly lit interior of the Kentucky Club.

She was. After drinks, he recalled, they bumped into a camera crew that tried to enlist the attractive couple to kiss on camera for a TV commercial but ORourke begged off. Es mi hermana, he told them: Shes my sister. Ten months later, they were married.

ORourke isnt naive about the violence that plagues parts of the city. Still, he maintains that crime is not the only story about the U.S.-Mexico border, nor even the most important one. He sees Juarez as a place where an open mind and a stomach for risk can lead to meaningful connections and long-term partnerships.

The question for the 44-year-old with statewide ambitions is: Can he get the people of Texas to see the same thing?

Inside the bar, where Elizabeth Taylor and Steve McQueen once partied and the margarita was supposedly invented, the congressman grabbed a table lined by photos of matadors and Mexican baseball players. He was greeted by an El Paso friend, Miguel Fernandez, whose telecommunications firm does work on both sides of the border.

Fernandez talked about his fear that President Trump will spark a trade war between the two countries. At least tell me, where are you now on running for Senate? Fernandez asked, taking a sip from his bottle of Sol. More than 50-50?

Im pretty close, ORourke said. I really want to do this.

Democrats might look at ORourke a small-business owner with hipster credentials, a GenXer who speaks fluent Spanish and looks more like a Kennedy than the Kennedys do and see a candidate of thrilling national potential, marred only by where he happens to live. But then again, maybe its where he lives that makes him exciting.

With its growing Hispanic population, Democrats have long believed that Texas would eventually belong to them just not imminently. But the 2016 election has scrambled the way people think about these things.

I wouldnt have said it last year, but I think he has a chance, said Anne Caprara, of the Priorities USA super PAC, who is advising ORourke on his 2018 potential.

Naturally, others see opportunities as well. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat deemed a rising star, is considering the race, too.

You wont have a problem raising money. Cruz will basically fundraise for you, said Castros twin brother, Julin, the former housing and urban development secretary who recently ruled out a 2018 bid for governor of Texas.

The Cruz camp maintains that it isnt worried about either but sees Castro as slightly more of a threat than ORourke. But while the Castros have the fundraising prowess and name recognition, their pragmatism and caution could keep both from seeking higher office so soon.

[Julin Castro is ready for whatever comes next]

In El Paso, regarded by many as more Mexican than Texan, ORourke is far removed from the Democratic megadonors of Houston or Austin, and he has decided not to take PAC money if he runs. Still, he hopes to turn a necessity into a virtue with a Bernie Sanders-style approach excite the grass roots and rake in smaller donations.

ORourke may be suffering from the bug thats going around the one causing mass delusions that the old rules of politics no longer apply. Can a Democrat really win in this deeply red state against Cruz, who will be running one of the best-financed campaigns in the country? And can he do so on a positive message about Mexicans in an era when calling them rapists helped make a man president?

The timing might not be right for ORourke, but that hasnt stopped him in the past.

Growing up in El Paso, Robert Francis ORourke (the childhood nickname that stuck is a diminutive of Roberto) wanted nothing more than to get out of town. The son of the county judge, he formed a punk band, Foss, with the hopes of traveling the world.

In 1994, Foss needed exposure, and someone suggested a local public-access show called Get Real With Bill Lowrey.

There was only one hitch. It was an evangelical broadcast. We told them we were a new gospel band, said ORourke.

[WATCH: Foss on Get Real With Bill Lowrey. ORourke is the guy in orange]

Oh yeah, they kind of pulled a fast one on me, recalled Lowrey, the televangelist host. But we enjoyed it. Mostly I cant believe he grew up to be a functioning member of society.

Foss toured the United States and Canada, but greater success would go to ORourkes drummer, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, who moved on to the cult-favorite bands At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta. ORourke, meanwhile, realized he couldnt be a musician forever.

I wasnt that good at it, he admitted. And his dad was pressuring him to grow up. He wont say it, but the expectation is: We didnt take out loans for you to go to Columbia and then [play] in a punk band your whole life.

With his Ivy League degree, ORourke moved back to El Paso and started a technology company and an online arts and culture magazine. Even in his 20s, ORourke found it easy to assume a leadership position in the community.

He ran for and won his first race for city council at 32, with a focus on downtown development and border issues, seeing the two as inextricably linked. He wrote a book about the drug war and offered legislation calling for an honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition on narcotics.

In 2009 ORourke heard his congressman, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, at a Chamber of Commerce meeting described drug-related violence in Juarez like a stick-em-up movie full of cretins who were better off dead, as it sounded to ORourke. The councilman was troubled by what seemed like a lack of empathy for El Pasos twin city. A fellow council member, Steve Ortega, urged him to challenge Reyes. And so, in 2012, he took on the 16-year House veteran in the Democratic primary.

[Have liberals found their combative new leader in Keith Olbermann?]

Reyes, a former Border Patrol chief, had the support of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. ORourke had an arrest record: In 1995, he was arrested for breaking and entering, a prank gone awry, he says, when some friends bet each other they could get past a fence surrounding the local college. Then there was the 1998 drunken driving arrest, an incident he says was stupid and regrets.

Reyes used ORourkes mug shot in attack ads and criticized him for supporting marijuana legalization. Few people thought ORourke had a chance. But with the help of an anti-incumbent sentiment and an anti-incumbent super PAC that poured $240,000 into the race he won.

Five years later, ORourke sees another opportunity to sneak himself in.

It cost 25 cents to walk across the Paso Del Norte bridge back into the United States after lunch at the Kentucky Club. A gaggle of shoppers marched in front of the congressman women off to buy shoes, clothes and groceries that are cheaper in El Paso. A few weeks earlier, Border Patrol had allowed separated families to wade into the stagnant, ankle-deep water below and hug where the two countries meet.

On the one hand, its really pitiful that this is what they had to do... just to see each other, said ORourke. In another way, its really amazing that El Paso and Juarez could figure out a way, and under President Trump no less, to at least do this for families.

[As the GOPs anti-Trump, Ben Sasse picked a big fight. What would it mean to win?]

At a time when Democrats and Republicans alike talk about securing the border, ORourke maintains that the border has never been more secure. The number of immigrants living illegally in the United States has not increased in years. With 32 million documented border crossings a year, Mexicans are a crucial driver of the El Paso economy. And El Paso ranks as one of the safest cities in the country.

But while ORourke points to El Pasos good health as proof that a semi-porous border works well for both sides, proponents of tougher border security argue that credit goes to the rigorous Border Patrol presence and extensive fencing between Juarez and El Paso.

Thats part of what ORourke was up against when he ran against Reyes, who once spearheaded an effort called Operation Hold the Line. If he runs for Senate, hell face Cruz, who promised in his 2016 presidential bid to triple border security and build a wall that works a slogan that certainly worked for the man who won that race.

I just wish more people could see what I see, ORourke said.

To do that requires an early start.

That morning, he woke before dawn for a hike in the Franklin Mountains, leaving his wife and three children sleeping in their home that a century ago sat above a secret tunnel to Mexico.

With his old city council pal Ortega, he snaked up the trail under a full moon, passing the spiky silhouettes of cypress trees and clumps of greasewood plants that smell like tar when it rains.They perched on a rocky point near the summit where they peeled oranges and shared a thermos of coffee, looking out at the twin cities glittering in the dark.

It was nearly impossible to tell what was Mexico and what was Texas, and that, of course, was his point.

Original post:

Beto O'Rourke is a Mexico-loving liberal in Texas. Can he really ... - Washington Post

Premier Christy Clark had hoped to head into this springs election running on a new provincial budget infused with billions from a thriving liquefied natural gas industry. She will have to settle for something far less.

On Tuesday, Ms. Clarks Liberal government tabled its final fiscal plan before this Mays provincial showdown and, as expected, it had a bit of something for everyone: corporate and personal tax and fee cuts, health and educating funding hikes, and a range of other spending increases that allows the government to ingratiate itself to an array of constituents.

Make no mistake: this is a document most provincial governments would still be thrilled on which to campaign. For starters, it marks the fifth consecutive balanced budget the Liberals will have submitted, a stretch of first-rate fiscal stewardship unparalleled in the country. The provinces debt-to-GDP ratio is 16.1 per cent which compares to 40.3 per cent for Ontario and 48 per cent for Quebec. It is the only province in the country with a Triple A credit rating.

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As Finance Minister Mike de Jong noted, this is not just about holding bragging rights. The difference in that credit rating and those debt figures compared to those of a province like Ontario amounts to a savings of about $2-billion a year in interest costs. That is a lot of program spending.

The government deserves plaudits, as well, for continuing to diversify not just its economy but its trade markets, too. For instance, only 53.9 per cent of B.C.s trade is now with the U.S., compared to 86.3 per cent for Alberta and 80.9 per cent for Ontario. Those percentages take on a more ominous hue when you consider the protectionist trade winds currently emanating from south of the border. Meantime, B.C. created the most jobs in Canada last year as well.

All of this is important. The B.C. Liberals are a coalition of conservative and liberal-minded voters. To keep the conservative wing happy, the Clark government has had to demonstrate it knows how to run an economy, or at least, knows how not to ruin one. It has taken some heat along the way for some of the more ruthless spending decisions it has made in the name of balancing budgets. This has been an important aspect of maintaining the support of conservatives in the province. But the Premier knows she needs to appeal to voters beyond that group as well, especially ones in the mushy ideological middle.

She believes this budget does that. Others may not.

In the weeks leading up to it, Ms. Clark hinted that a significant tax cut was coming. It ended up being a somewhat underwhelming reduction to MSP premiums. It doesnt take effect until next January, while the announced small business corporate tax cut occurs immediately which perhaps speaks to the Liberals priorities. The government has significantly boosted spending in the ministries of education and children and family development, but in both cases it was virtually forced into it; in the instance of education by the courts and in child protection by relentless public criticism and damaging reports.

This is not a government that could in any way be described as warm or sensitive.

Of course, this has always been where the Opposition New Democrats have tried to set themselves apart from the Liberals mostly to little avail. But they will try again.

The New Democrats intend on making a $10-a-day daycare strategy a centrepiece of its election platform, something the Liberals have no interest in touching. The Liberals will also face criticism from the Opposition for not raising welfare rates in this budget, maintaining a hardened position on this line item it has held for a decade. The NDP will almost certainly make other choices on the social welfare side of the ledger that the Liberals resisted in this budget.

At the end of the day, however, the Liberals insist that the upcoming election will be fought on the same fundamental voter concerns as the last one: which party is best for creating jobs and growing the economy, and which party can best be trusted to navigate the often tricky and perilous economic times in which we live.

Ms. Clark is betting this budget, and the four that preceded it, make the case that that party is hers.

Follow Gary Mason on Twitter: @garymasonglobe

Excerpt from:

BC Liberals make re-election pitch with fifth straight balanced budget - The Globe and Mail

As Jimmy Kimmel prepares to host the Oscars on Sunday, he got candid on whether audiences can expect politically-fueledspeeches this year.

It depends on the speech, you know? he told The Hollywood Reporter. I think that youve got a group of people who are largely very liberal, although I will say, the first time I hosted the Emmys, I had a joke about there being no Republicans in the room, and a surprisingly big group of people clapped when I asked if there were Republicans, and I was a little bit thrown by it.

JIMMY KIMMEL REVEALS HIS LOW OSCARS HOST SALARY

So I dont think the audience in its entirety is as liberal as people in Middle America imagine it is, added the 49-year-old TV host. But the celebrities, most of them are pretty liberal.

However, Kimmel said that Democrats in Hollywood may have a hard time outshining one leading lady with their speeches.

If I was nominated and I was going to stand on that stage, I think Id be intimidated by how good Meryl Streeps [Golden Globes] speech was, so Id probably keep my mouth shut when it comes down to it, he said.

COUNTRY STARS READ 'MEAN TWEETS' ON 'JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE'

The 67-year-old actress is nominated for her 20th Oscar.

The Academy Awards will be televised Feb. 26.

Visit link:

Jimmy Kimmel says not everyone in Hollywood is 'very liberal' - Fox News

Members of Parliament might feelpressure to toe the party line and maintain party unity in the House of Commons. But a few MPs have stood out for their willingness to rise and vote "Yea" when the rest of their colleagues vote "Nay."

Still, this breaking of the ranks is rare: even the biggest rebel in Parliament votes along party lines 87 per cent of the time.

The "party line" is not always clearcut, and MPs are sometimes given free rein by their parties to vote how they like. For the purposes of this analysis, the party line has been defined as the way in which the prime minister and his cabinet vote (for the Liberals)and the way in which the majority of MPs in an opposition party have voted.

The data was compiled from voting records maintained by openparliament.ca.

In the 198 votes held in the House of Commons from the beginning of the session in December 2015, through to Feb. 14 all Liberal MPs have voted the same way79 per cent of the time. That's a lower level of unanimous voting thanany of the other parties in the House.

This is partly due to the prime minister's position on whipped votes. Liberal MPs are only required to vote the party line onelection commitments, charter issues and matters of confidence in the government, such as budget bills.

On the other side of the aisle, the Conservatives have all voted unanimously 87 per cent of the time, the New Democrats 95 per cent of the timeand the Bloc Qubcois 98 per cent of thetime.

Two Liberal backbench MPs are the most frequent dissenters from the party line: Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (22 votes) and Robert-Falcon Ouellette (17 votes).

That represents 13 per cent of all votes cast by Erskine-Smithand nine per cent of Ouellette's voting in the House of Commons.

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith is the MP that has broken party ranks most often in the House of Commons. (Provided/Nathaniel Erskine-Smith)

"Constituents want strong local representation," Erskine-Smith said in an interview with CBC News. "Reasonable disagreements are the foundations of democracy."

The Toronto MP says he "consults constituents, evidence and one's own conscience" when deciding how to vote the only pressures exerted on him, he says, are the personal pressures of being a member of a team.

(Natalie Holdway / CBC News)

When not voting with the rest of his party, Erskine-Smith has most often voted with the New Democrats (18 times) and the Green Party (17), and less often with the Conservatives (nine).

Winnipeg MP Ouellette, who also frequently voted with the Green Party and the NDP, wasmore likely to vote with the Conservatives (13 out of 17 break-rank votes) thanhis other frequently dissenting Liberal colleagues.

These included Rob Oliphant (12 votes),Pam Damoff (11) andRen Arseneault (10). Still, these three voted with the rest of the Liberal Party at least 94 per cent of the time.

The NDP MP who dissented most often from her party's line was Christine Moore, voting differently from her colleagues three times.

The threeConservatives who voted most often against the majority of the party's MPs were Peter Kent (13 times), Michael Chong (12) and Sylvie Boucher (11).

Chong is a candidate for his party's leadership (and Kent has endorsed him). In the last Parliament, he passeda private member's bill, called the Reform Act, to give more power and independence to MPs.

Chongwas more likely to vote with the Liberals than the other opposition parties, while Kent voted equally as often with the Liberals, the Green Party and the NDPinstead of the majority of Conservative MPs.

"I vote based on the views of my constituents and conservativeprinciples," Chong said in an email.

With the exception of Brad Trost, who has been present for 175 of the 198 votes held through to Feb. 14, Chong is also the leadership candidate who has been most present in the House of Commons.

Contenders Kellie Leitch, Maxime Bernier and Deepak Obhrai have missed the most votes.

When present, Obhrai, who has voted 101 times, dissented with the majority of his party more often than Chong. He voted with the minority of Conservative MPs on eight occasions, representing eight per cent of his votes (Chong's minority votes, meanwhile, represent seven per cent of his total).

Lisa Raitt and Steven Blaneyvoted with the minority of Conservative MPs on only four occasions, Trostthree times, and Bernier twice.

Scheer, Leitch and Erin O'Toolehave voted with the majority of Conservative MPs every time they were in the House.

Erin O'Toole, Andrew Scheer and Kellie Leitch have voted with a majority of Conservative MPs throughout this session. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

Scheer and O'Toole are among the candidates for the leadership who are aiming to be a consensus second choice for party members an important factor in a vote that will be decided by a ranked ballot. Chong, however, is running on his party's left flank which aligns with his voting record in the House.

"I'm running in this leadership race to reduce the power of party leaders, particularly the [Prime Minister's Office], to control MPs," says Chong. "The fight to pass the Reform Act taught me that being party leader is the only way to achieve more ambitious reforms to Parliament and to political parties."

For now, however, all of these dissenting MPs appear destined to remain exceptions to the rule of party discipline in the House of Commons. And that might not be what Canadians want.

In the MyDemocracy.ca survey conducted by the government last year, 83 per cent of respondents agreed that MPs"should always act in the interests of their constituents, even if it means going against their own party."

The survey had been conducted as part of the government's abandoned pledge to reform the electoral system. Considering his independent voting record, it was perhaps fitting that Erskine-Smiththen feltcompelled to apologizeto Canadians for Justin Trudeau'sbreaking of that particular campaign promise.

See the article here:

Liberal backbenchers, Tory leadership hopefuls among Parliament's biggest dissenters - CBC.ca

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"Today, sports writing is basically a liberal profession, practiced by liberals who enforce an unapologetically liberal code," writes Bryan Curtis at The Ringer. He's right.

You can see it in the way sportswriters police a consensus against the Washington Redskins' name, or for on-field political activism. They tweet against President Trump, and for undocumented immigrants. They pile on populist loudmouths like former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, and may even be punishing him for his politics with their Hall of Fame ballots. They proudly admit that they are at a remove from their readers. HardballTalk's Craig Calcaterra owns it: "It's folly for any of us to think we're speaking for the common fan."

Curtis is generally pleased with sports journalism's leftward shift, and treats the possibility of non-conforming writers as a potentially amusing but unnecessary curio. "Would it be nice to have a David Frum or Ross Douthat of sports writing, making wrongheaded-but-interesting arguments about NCAA amateurism?" he asks. "Sure. As long as nobody believed them."

Well, I think I may be this curio myself.

I run a subscription newsletter about baseball The Slurve that is deliberately constructed to be an escape from politics for my readers (and for me). But I'm still a conservative who does a lot of sports writing. Besides The Slurve, I've written a few sports pieces in ESPN Magazine, and occasionally inflict my wrongheaded (but interesting!) sports arguments on readers here at The Week.

Predictably (and perhaps self-interestedly), I think the increasing ideological uniformity of sports writing is bad for sports journalism and for sports themselves. And in the way that it encourages conformism and intellectual laziness, it is probably bad for causes dear to liberals in sports.

Calcaterra is right that liberal sports writers aren't speaking "for the common fan." More often they are speaking at the common fan, or even just at a caricature of a fan that they assembled from the most voluble sports talk radio callers and the obscure Twitter accounts that jeer their work. The liberalism on offer on sports pages is rather infatuated with the norms and aspirations of the class of people from which journalists are drawn. And this narrowness usually puts them in an antagonistic position not just with fans, but with the entire sports culture beyond journalism.

The recent self-consciousness of progressive sports writers also misleads many of them into thinking all their quarrels are with conservative ideas, when they are in fact just arguing with the voluble and inarticulate. Sports radio hosts and their callers are often (wrongly) taken as the stand-in for opposing ideas.

Some of the debates in baseball in particular are given ideological or racial names, when in fact they are generational. Take the debate about bat-flips, which is often cast as one between stodgy white conservatives and fun multicultural liberals who prefer a Latin game. There is a reason why older Baby Boomer writers, who are themselves veterans of a deeply hierarchical system that rewarded time-serving veterans who spent decades writing formulaic gamers, are more likely to admire and defend the hierarchical culture among athletes that includes hazing a rookie, or letting expressive or cocky young players know they have to earn their place in the pecking order. And it's not a surprise that younger writers who smashed through to national audiences through opinionated new digital platforms admire the more expressive players.

But there's only so much that this new crop of sports writers can truly identify with the players they admire. Socially cosseted with other journalists, liberal sports writers increasingly identify with the only set of actors in the sports world that come from a cultural milieu relatable to their own: the new class of rationalizing, brainy executives. In another generation, sports writers dreamed futilely of being Willie Mays or Gordie Howe. Now they want to be Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. And their copy and concerns increasingly seem to be written for each other and for these analytics-loving general managers.

Sometimes the problems this produces aren't strictly political. Brian Kenny, the loudest of the sports rationalizers, once asked if anyone should care about no-hitters anymore. After all, nine innings is just a small sample size, and throwing a no-hitter can be a bit flukish. No one thinks that the last person to throw a no-hitter is, by definition, the best pitcher in the game. Kenny used the political-ish rhetoric of liberals to make this point. He was advocating a modern, progressive, and data-driven view of baseball against "antiquated" and misguided "values."

Kenny's argument wasn't wrong as much as it was wrong-footed. He wasn't advocating a progressive view, just the general managers' view that a single game isn't useful for ranking a player or determining his next contract or his trade value. But fans (and players) can still enjoy games as individual dramatic events, apart from the fact that they add a marginal amount of new data to an evaluative spreadsheet. And don't forget, a big story of the last decade has been the humbling of the clever-dick sabermetricians and the journalists who championed them, as new forms of data and deeper insights into front offices confirm some of the once-scorned wisdom of the ages.

The pattern of over-identifying with general managers is endemic to liberal sports journalism, and the not-so-secret truth is that liberal sportswriters increasingly hold the culture that produces athletes and their fans in contempt, or even find it dangerous and threatening. Fans are treated as a distracting nuisance, in thrall to their tribal affinities and over-invested in homegrown players or even in winning itself. How quaint.

The culture of athletes is treated as alien and toxic, a kind of pit in which womanizing bros, aggressive rageaholics, and icky religious freaks are allowed to flourish and enjoy a high income and status that would be justly denied to people who act and think in this way in any other profession. When macho athletes like Yasiel Puig are profiled, it is often in a superficial way in which their background is mined for all political resonance and dramatic tension, but the actual personality is carefully obscured. Athletes are famously hard to get to know, but sportswriters often just seem incapable of getting their head into a macho, competitive, aggressive culture. And sometimes, sports writers seem to be appealing to the general manager or team HR departments to enforce liberal norms on their highly paid assets.

The smaller portion of athletes who happen to share cultural affinities or political commitments with liberal sports writers are given glowing, intimate, get-to-know-you portraits. Stories like "How Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin a bike-riding, socially conscious, Animal Collective-loving hipster is redefining what it means to be a football player." I wonder if there was a follow-up asking all other football players whether they were redefined by Barwin's presence. It's notable that journalists who do seem to get along with average athletes, like Bill Simmons or even Stephen A. Smith, are treated with a little bit of suspicion by the rest of the sports writer tribe

The almost hegemonic liberalism in sports journalism is due to many factors. It's a product of the culture of prestige journalism, which is becoming more rarefied and conformist. It's also a product of the digital age, in which straight-down-the-line game stories aren't enough to feed the content maw of the internet. It's a product of athletes partially retreating from journalists for fear of being hurt with their sponsors, and journalists needing more than ever to create more colorful human interest stories without that access.

It's also true that conservative ideas tend to be slower off the block. Because they are defenders of tradition, conservatives' arguments often strike liberals as either an unreflective devotion to the way things are (or were), or as being too subtle to be credible. One progressive baseball writer confessed to me privately that my traditionalist argument against expanding the designated hitter to the National League struck him as "koan-like" and that he had trouble deciding whether it was inarguably true or pure nonsense.

The lack of intelligent conservatives in sports, or at least their relative shyness about their ideas, also allows progressive sportswriters to advance ideas without challenge, sometimes all the way into dead ends. Take the debate about Native American mascots in logos. Of course it makes perfect sense to remove or alter any logos that offend people. But all mascots are reductive caricatures. Was the problem that the logos were offensive or that there is so little representation of Native Americans in our culture that their presence as mascots seems mocking by default? Has no one stopped to notice there is something odd about an anti-racism that will cause an evermore diverse country to declare rooting for white-faced mascots the only safe thing to do? How will this deletion of all non-white faces look in 50 years?

The more astonishing piece of conventional wisdom generated by younger self-styled progressive sports writers was their argument against "PED hysteria." Many writers simply said fans didn't care enough, and many liked the results of a juiced game anyway. Some even took it to the logical conclusion: that sports leagues should preside over a free-for-all with performance-enhancing drugs. This is a strangely anti-labor and anti-regulation stance for liberals. It gives tacit encouragement for athletes to ignore both federal laws and their own health interests because of what the market demands. And it wouldn't solve the problem of marginal players taking PEDs to hang on. It would only make them turn to more exotic and dangerous drugs.

And that brings us to a stranger irony for progressive sports writers. Having committed themselves so thoroughly to arguments against "moralizing" or against "tradition," they actually become handmaidens for the interests of owners and capital. Having demythologized all values that are not purely rationalistic, making themselves deaf to arguments for some abstract "integrity of the game," they can mount no principled objection to, for example, commercial advertising being imposed on the bases in baseball. They will be met with their own favorite arguments that "the sky didn't fall" the last time traditionalists objected to some alteration. And in this respect it is notable that the NBA, whose writers tend to be even more progressive than the norm among sports writers, was the first major American sports league to announce that it would sell advertising space on player jerseys.

Similarly, if MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says that a pitch clock and starting a man on second base in extra innings would be good for the game, liberal sports writers would have already debarred themselves from the kind of arguments that would preserve continuity between the game of Mel Ott and Mike Trout.

Liberal sports writers do a lot of good. But they should be a little more analytical when it comes to their own position, and their own culture, and whether it is encouraging sloppiness and arrogance in their thinking, whether it is causing them to broadcast their disdain for the very people they cover, and whether it is fostering in them a charmless contempt for a huge portion of their readers that they can't hide and we can't unsee.

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The arrogant thinking of liberal sports writers - The Week Magazine

Malcolm Turnbull says preference allocations, such as the WA governments deal with One Nation, are not value judgments. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Malcolm Turnbull says entering a preference deal with One Nation doesnt mean the Liberal party supports One Nation, as a new poll shows a majority of voters disapprove of a deal between the Liberals and Pauline Hansons party in Western Australia.

Turnbull told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that preference allocations were political calculations designed to maximise the performance of the Liberal party, not value judgments.

Asked about the Liberal partys decision in WA to preference One Nation ahead of its alliance partner, the Nationals, in some areas, the prime minister said: Well its important to understand ... that in most parts of Australia we have a compulsory preferential voting system, where you have to number a square next to each candidate on the ballot paper so there will always be the allocation of preferences.

But just because preferences are directed to a party doesnt mean that you support them quite the contrary.

His comments come as the latest Guardian Essential poll says 38% of people disapprove of the deal between the Liberal party and One Nation in WA, while 29% approve. But, among Liberal voters, 43% approved of the arrangement and 25% disapproved.

The deal in the west has also been criticised by the federal Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce. In an interview with Guardian Australia last week, Joyce warned that anti-Islamic statements, such as the ones espoused by One Nation, could harm Australian trade deals.

He said he would give instructions not to preference Hansons party before the Liberal party in federal seats.

The deal in WA parts ways with John Howards dictum in 2001 that One Nation should be put last on Liberal how-to-vote cards and some Liberal moderates are concerned preferencing One Nation will help entrench Hanson in the Australian political mainstream, creating a long-term problem for the Coalition parties.

The Australian on Tuesday reported that One Nations Queensland leader, Steve Dickson, wanted positions in the ministry in return for supporting the LNP in the state election, which is expected later this year.

Dickson, who recently defected from the LNP to lead One Nation in Queensland, said policy and positions would be a condition of support for an LNP minority government in the state.

One Nations strong performance in recent polls suggests the party will do well in Queensland. A recent poll had the party on track to better its result of 11 seats in the 1998 state election.

Howard last week abandoned his own 2001 instruction to put Hanson last, saying he fully understood the decision in Western Australia for the state election.

Everyone changes in 16 years, he said. Trying to understand that decision and decisions that were taken by various iterations of the Liberal party 15 or 16 years ago is ridiculous.

This is a different set of circumstances. I think its entirely sensible that the party has done whats its done.

Since the deal was struck in WA, a number of federal ministers have lined up in support, with some advancing arguments that One Nation is more sophisticated than it was 20 years ago.

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Malcolm Turnbull says WA deal doesn't mean Liberal party supports One Nation - The Guardian

Just when you thought the WA Liberal's cringe worthy and hilarious dance moves couldn't get any worse, it appears party members are serial offenders when it comes to busting out awkward moves on the dance floor.

At the Liberal's campaign launch on Sunday, members can be seen clumsily cutting a rug and clapping out of sync to Daft Punk's One More Time.

The daggy dancing was only elevated slightly thanks to Liberal deputy leader Liza Harvey doing what could only be described as a robotic and rigid impersonation of the Twist.

Now a video has emerged of Liberal MP's boogieing to Bollywood-style tunes at a fundraiser for wannabe pollie Jim Seth who is running for the party in the seat of Bassendean.

And TreasurerMike Nahan, who foxtrotted to back of the corny choreography at the Liberal launch, is on the stage leading the charge in theBollywood Dance Workshop fundraiser filmed in December.

We are just not sure what he is doing.

At one-stage it looks like the Riverton MP is trying to put a fire out on his left arm, then he whoops it by creating his own dance move which we will dub, ringing the church bells.

The Treasurer'sown version of Dirty Dancing doesn't end there as he wiggles his hips and does a half-version of the sprinkler, before it looks like he pops out a hip.

Meanwhile Ms Harvey, Planning Minister Donna Faragher, Attorney General Michael Mischin and Parliamentary Speaker Michael Sutherland are waving their arms in the air, just like they just don't care.

It's just their cavorting isn't coordinated.

We are not suggesting the Liberals got stuck into any exotic Indian drinks, but it does seem a few might be a little tipsy while tripping the light fantastic.

At one point in the video, Mr Seth can be seen walking off the dance floor. We are not sure if decided to head home after watching his Liberal mates bust out the whitest moves ever.

And it also clears up the mystery who the man with the giant ribbon with the words "I'm Jim" on it was on stage during the Liberals' butchering of One More Time.

Excerpt from:

Liberals butcher Bollywood One More Time - WAtoday

Liberal Arts College Students Are Getting Less Artsy Inside Higher Ed Liberal arts colleges promise students a well-rounded education in core disciplines that will prepare them for a variety of careers and lifelong learning not just a first job. Increasingly, though, even attending a liberal arts institution doesn't ...

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Liberal Arts College Students Are Getting Less Artsy - Inside Higher Ed

LaTrice Watkins, 38, of Detroit, wears a chicken suit as she and others peacefully protest along E. Big Beaver as they do The Chicken Dance during their rally outside the Troy office of GOP Rep. Dave Trott earlier this month.(Photo: Todd McInturf / The Detroit News)Buy Photo

Constituents of Republican Rep. Dave Trott of Birmingham are planning town hall meetings in his district this week, although hes out of the country and wont attend.

Residents in the district of GOP Rochester Rep. Mike Bishop are inviting him to a town hall during the April congressional recess, saying theyll stand up a cardboard cutout of his likeness if he doesnt show.

Activists rallied with signs outside Trotts office in Troy and Bishops in Brighton in recent weeks, as well as the offices of Republican Reps. Bill Huizenga in Grandville and Tim Walberg in Jackson, where demonstrators left behind bags of candy conversation hearts on Valentines Day. And a crowd of more than 600 showed up this month at a town hall in Grand Rapids hosted by GOP Rep. Justin Amash.

The protests and town halls, as well as a flood of calls to congressional offices in the last month, are part of a nationwide uptick in Democratic activism that is borrowing tactics from the conservative tea party, which grew to a mass movement in 2009.

Organizers want face time with their members of Congress to discuss the Trump administrations plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the Republican presidents controversial ban on travelers and refugees, among other topics.

Several Michigan activists said they got ideas from an advocacy guide published online by the Indivisible network, which pledges to resist the Trump agenda. Dozens of groups in Metro Detroit have registered on the Indivisible site, which was assembled by former Democratic congressional staffers.

I wasnt active politically before, said Gretchen Hertz of Brighton, who is organizing a town hall for April 11 and inviting Bishop. People want him to know that were not really that happy with everything that Trump is doing, and we dont want you to rubber stamp it.

Rep. Justin Amash, right, speaks to people being turned away at the door because of overcrowding before the start of a town hall meeting at City High Middle School in Grand Rapids on Feb. 9.(Photo: Mike Clark / AP)

Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist in Austin, Texas, said the activity is reminiscent of when grassroots conservatives protested the government stimulus, the Affordable Care Act and other initiatives in the early days of the Obama administration.

An early organizer with the tea party movement, Steinhauser says he came up with the idea of bringing a cardboard cutout of a congressman to a town hall, then calling the media to report he didnt show up.

This is about being out of power, Steinhauser said of the activism. Its a combination of losing the election and also the fear of the policies coming out of Washington. Unfortunately, people tend to not rally or protest their legislators when they want to do something positive. They protest and call legislators to stop ideas or policies that they disagree with.

The protest uprisings have their differences. President Barack Obama had a seven-month honeymoon before protesters descended in large numbers on town halls during the August 2009 congressional recess to complain about the Democratic presidents plans to enact a sweeping health care law.

The rumblings of the liberal backlash against Republican members started before Trump took office last month with promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act within three months.

Facing the constituents

Like with the tea party movement, the activity has sent congressional staffers scrambling meeting with protesters and trying to respond to the influx of calls and emails.

Huizenga is planning a town hall Saturday in Lake County and is searching for a venue that holds more than 500 in the southern part of his district for the first week in March, spokesman Brian Patrick said.

Huizenga has hosted tele-town halls this year, taking questions by phone, and has previously used Facebooks Live video feature for question-and-answer sessions.

We understand there are people who do not support Congressman Huizenga, do not support President Trump. We want to hear their opinions, as well, Patrick said.

Bishops office has logged more than 2,300 calls and sent more than 5,000 emails and nearly 1,300 letters in response to constituent concerns since Jan. 1, according to his office.

Congressman Bishop is in session this week but is aware of the protests and fully hears the concerns voiced by those who are participating, spokeswoman Kelli Ford said last week during the fifth protest this year at Bishops Brighton office.

Congress has had votes 23 out of 46 days this year. He has been working around that and is connecting with constituents as much as possible.

Bishop recently hosted two calls when he took questions by phone. His office says this method reaches thousands more people than could fit into an in-person town hall and is better for seniors with limited transportation, especially in winter.

Dating to his days as a state lawmaker, Amash has taken a different approach than his colleagues. He has held two town halls so far this year, despite the busy voting schedule in Washington.

At the last one, Amash was booed for his support for GOP plans to repeal Obamacare. But the frequent Trump critic was cheered for issues on which he diverges with the president, such as arguing Trump should release his tax returns.

Amash said that while confrontation might make some of his colleagues uncomfortable, its important to engage face to face and to listen without any screens.

These are people you represent, and you should be willing to engage with them and discuss ideas and learn, he said in an interview.

At times, youll find that there are people who have misunderstandings of your own positions, and you can help clarify your positions by holding town halls. Its a positive thing to be out there.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tweeted in agreement: @justinamash is setting the right example. Conservatives should be ready (and eager) to defend and discuss our positions with everyone.

Where is Dave Trott?

Scott Pickett, a research analyst in Plymouth Township, said he helped start the website wheresdavetrott.com after calls and emails by him and some neighbors to Trotts office went unanswered, save for a form-letter response.

We want an opportunity to talk to him and hear his explanations for positions, said Pickett, a Democrat. Amid all the activity thats happening, we wanted to be assured that our voice is being heard.

At the U.S. Capitol last week, Trott told The Detroit News he plans to have an in-person town hall in the future. He hosted a tele-town hall this month.

Weve been in Washington more at this point in the session than the past several Congresses. So, where is Dave Trott? Im in Washington voting, Trott said, steps from the House chamber.

Most of the people demanding town hall meetings arent even from my district, OK?

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has suggested that anti-Trump protests are a very paid, AstroTurf-type movement.

Pickett says hes not paid for his efforts, and he lives in Trotts district.

Bryan Watson, a retired consultant in West Bloomfield, also lives in Trotts district and says no one is paying him. He saw the hashtag #wheresdavetrott on Twitter and decided to organize a Tuesday town hall at his public library.

Leslie Rzeznik of Plymouth, who is unpaid, connected on Facebook with other Trott constituents to plan a Thursday town hall in Novi. They recently partnered with the group Michigan Peoples Campaign.

This is an example of a totally organic, grassroots effort, Rzeznik said.

Trott, a sophomore representative, said he hosted town halls during his first term and intends to hold more, though hes wary, alluding to heckling by protesters at other GOP town halls.

If the purpose of the new town hall is to be disruptive and draw attention to peoples concerns over the replacement for the Affordable Care Act or President Trumps immigration policies, I dont know that a town hall is going to be particularly productive, because Ive heard those concerns, said Trott, who supports Trumps travel ban and repealing Obamacare.

Watson was disappointed to learn last week that Trott will be part of a congressional delegation to India and would not attend his town hall. Watson intends to go ahead without Trott, expecting about 50 people.

Im not affiliating myself with any groups. Once I put someone elses banner on this, then its just a partisan shout match, said Watson, a Democrat.

Id like to have a conversation. ... I know this district is heavily Republican. Maybe they dont know about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act.

After learning of Trotts India trip, the Michigan Peoples Campaign event is still on, with organizers inviting business owners and immigrants from the district to speak.

The great thing about the 11th District is there is so much global diversity, said Meredith Loomis Quinlan, who works for the Michigan Peoples Campaign and does not live in Trotts district.

We wanted to highlight that he doesnt need to globeTrott emphasis on the Trott to find people with whom to build relationships with, said Loomis Quinlan.

He can come home to his own district and talk to his constituents.

mburke@detroitnews.com

(202) 662-8736

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GOP lawmaker town halls face liberal discontent - The Detroit News

There is an old story in politics from the 1950s, where Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson is approached by a confident aide who tells him that he has the thinking people on his side, to which Stevenson replies, ah, but I need a majority. Liberalism is rooted in condescension, which is hidden under the veneer of tolerance andsupportingfree speech. It is actuallyremarkable: a group of overly indoctrinated individuals have managed to successfully polish a turd--until now.

For liberals, Hillary Clinton was so amazingly qualified to be president. She could have been the first female president, and she had a long history of publicservice etc. except no one liked her. No one has ever really liked Hillary except hard-core liberals, and theyre not the majority of the country. She was also dishonest, inauthentic, not trustworthy, and overly secretive. These characteristics were hurled at her in the 1990s, and rehashed when her campaign stumbled endlessly trying to explain how her unsecure and unauthorized private email server was okay for her to use for official business secretary of state. The ethical quid pro quo allegations at the Clinton Foundationwere also another source of heartburn for the campaign. Though there was an absence of hard evidence, it appears a pattern as common: good things happened to big donors to the Clinton Foundation. Just take a look at the Rosatom takeover of Uranium One as an example. All feed into the notion that voters couldnt trust Hillary, that she was in it for herself, and that she was a typical politician:all talk, no action. She lost in one of the biggest political upsets in American history.

As liberals deal with ruins of their movement and the Democratic Party struggles to find its way out of political exile, theyre lashing out at Trump voters, even reluctant ones who theycould flip in 2020. Those who out themselves are then besieged by judgment by the urban-based elite, who still haven't noticed that their way of thinking failed to win over voters. In fact, it was the opposite; millions of Obama voters voted for Trump. Talk about compounding the suck that is Hillary Rodham Clinton.

So, as liberals think theyre gaining ground with a Tea Party of their own (i.e. town hall protests)and continue to embrace identity politics because nothing says insanity than smashing your face against the same wall twice for a different result, they also have to know that its only emboldening Trump voters. The New York Times had an article that showed how even Democrats from the Clinton era are sick of the progressive antics that have taken over their party, namely that fact that BillClinton pretty much reiterated much of what Trump said about immigration. The only difference is that Bill was lauded for it; Trump is smeared as a racist. It also delves into how dating is becoming a game of cloak and dagger for some, with dates lying to their friends about political affiliations to avoid being shunned. While others make it very clear that theyre not interested in Trump supporters. So, in liberal America, your vote is all that defines you. And they say the GOP has an outreach problem.

ViaNYT:

Mr. Medford should be a natural ally for liberals trying to convince the country that Mr. Trump was a bad choice. But it is not working out that way. Every time Mr. Medford dips into the political debate either with strangers on Facebook or friends in New York and Los Angeles he comes away feeling battered by contempt and an attitude of moral superiority.

[]

Liberals may feel energized by a surge in political activism, and a unified stance against a president they see as irresponsible and even dangerous. But that momentum is provoking an equal and opposite reaction on the right. In recent interviews, conservative voters said they felt assaulted by what they said was a kind of moral Bolshevism the belief that the liberal vision for the country was the only right one. Disagreeing meant being publicly shamed.

Protests and righteous indignation on social media and in Hollywood may seem to liberals to be about policy and persuasion. But moderate conservatives say they are having the opposite effect, chipping away at their middle ground and pushing them closer to Mr. Trump.

[]

Conservatives have gotten vicious, too, sometimes with Mr. Trumps encouragement. But if political action is meant to persuade people that Mr. Trump is bad for the country, then people on the fence would seem a logical place to start. Yet many seemingly persuadable conservatives say that liberals are burning bridges rather than building them.

[]

It is tempting to blame Mr. Trump for Americas toxic political state of mind. He has wreaked havoc on political civility and is putting American democratic institutions through the most robust stress test in decades. But many experts argue that he is a symptom, not a cause, and that the roots go deeper.

[]

The Democratic Party has changed so much that I dont even recognize it anymore, she said. These people are destroying our democracy. They are scarier to me than these Islamic terrorists. I feel absolutely disgusted with them and their antics. It strengthens peoples resolve in wanting to support President Trump. It really does.

Polling data suggest many center-right voters feel the same way. The first poll by the Pew Research Center on presidential job performance since Mr. Trump took office showed last week that while he has almost no support from Democrats, he has high marks among moderates who lean Republican: 70 percent approve, while 20 percent disapprove.

Looks like liberals are doing a bang up job getting Trump that second term, especially those who work in Hollywood.

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NYT: Yep, Liberal Tantrums and Identity Politics Are Helping Trump (Secure That Second Term) - Townhall

Billionaire Predicts Liberal Arts-Driven Future Inside Higher Ed Asked if this means students should major in finance, he rejected the idea, predicting "much greater demand for liberal arts majors" in 10 years than there will be for those who study programming and maybe engineering. It will be those with true ...

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Billionaire Predicts Liberal Arts-Driven Future - Inside Higher Ed

The Liberal Democrats are likely to adopt as official policy a move to quash all historical sex-work convictions including brothel-keeping, soliciting business and kerb-crawling.

The move to wipe convictions from peoples records will be included in a key motion at Lib Dem spring conference as part of the partys wider drive to decriminalise sex work, while strengthening laws against non-consensual activity.

It will also cement official policy to oppose Government plans to introduce an age-verification process for people wishing to access online pornography, currently passing through the House of Lords.

Lib Dem Leader Tim Farron thinks the quashing of all previous convictions is a critical element in the drive to decriminalise sex work, something which overall will help reduce risks faced by women and men in the industry.

The partys home affairs spokesman Lord Paddick said: As a former police officer I know what works and the current laws around prostitution do not. They might sound tough but they dont protect people. The police should be focusing their resources on the very real crimes of trafficking and coercion rather than policing consenting adults.

Sex workers face enormous discrimination and are more likely to fall victim to crime and violence simply because the law criminalises them. We should target our policies and efforts at reducing harm not wasting police time and creating barriers that stop vulnerable people seeking help.

The former Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner said: That's why Liberal Democrats are proposing to take these outdated laws off the statute book. I believe it is time for an informed debate on this complex issue and I want my party to be leading that debate.

The motion to be voted on at the conference in late March would quash past convictions for anything that would be decriminalised under the new system.

That would include brothel keeping, which the party believes prevents sex workers from getting together to work in a safe space, solicitation, seen as something that pushes sex workers to take risks to secure business, and also kerb-crawling.

As well as decriminalising sex work activity, the motion seeks to refocus laws on tackling non-consensual activity including trafficking, child prostitution and pimping, and would see a strengthening of measures against coercion into sex and sex work on the grounds of fear, force, or fraud.

In addition, the policy would set up additional support for people trying to leave sex work, including through housing authorities, healthcare providers and places where education and training are available.

The Digital Economy Bill, which continues its passage through Parliament this week, will force pornographic websites to add age-verification checks that will not let people watch videos until they sign up through a special process, that would involve giving personal details.

But the motions says the party believes the checks to be illiberal, to pose a severe danger to privacy, and to be fundamentally unworkable.

There have been a string of hacking attacks on internet pages, such as dating websites, which have seen peoples personal data stolen, spread across the internet and even used as means for blackmail.

In 2016 users of elite dating site Beautiful People had their sexual preferences and personal messages splashed across the internet after being hacked. A year earlier users of the Ashley Madison website, which offered married people the chance of infidelity, had users details hacked and posted online.

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Liberal Democrats move to quash all historical sex-work convictions of prostitutes and punters - The Independent

Why do politicians have to ruin everything?

Over the weekend the WA Liberal Party launched their campaign for the upcoming state election where theyre hoping to win a third term in office. You could say they are hoping to win One More Time.

Somegenius idiot staffer clearly thought the One More Time imagery was so politically powerful and evocative, they came up with the idea to soundtrack the campaign launch to Daft Punks One More Time.

And so the worst 34 seconds in Australian political history was born.

Its immediately clear that none of these people have ever heard Daft Punk before. Literally no one, until now, hasclappedalong to One More Time in the 16 years of its existence.

And no one, absolutely no one, has danced to Daft Punk while campaigning for a motorway extension to fix congestion.

The most anachronistic moment in dance music, ever?

This bloke is absolutely stoked though, look at his face:

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck what a tune!! Old Liberal man.

Hes so excited he even high fives this other guy.

Hahaha were so white

Okay, so turns out theres one person at this campaign launch who has heard the track before. This legend actually sings along to the chorus and even throws up her finger in the air in the classic Its the bit where they sing One more time so I should throw my finger in the air to indicate that manner. This lady for Premier, I reckon.

But theres one guy who is clearly feeling as confused and horrified as the rest of the country. Meet Jim Seth, WA Liberal candidate for Bassendean:

White people, smh

Theres a lot to unpack about Jim. Why is he wearing a giant ribbon? Why is he theonlyperson wearing a giant ribbon? Why does his ribbon have his name on it? You can tell from the look in his eyes that he wants out.

Save me, Im Jim.

The thing about Jim is that hes a baller. Here he is hosting a Bollywood dance workshop fundraiser, to help teach his white friends in the Liberal Party how to dance to some sick Punjabi tunes:

Imagine being Jim and going to all the effort to school your mates on how to dance properly, and then watching them clap and awkwardly shuffle along to a track as defining as One More Time. Its enough to make you weep, which is probably what Jim did as soon as the camera panned away.

Its hard to know who should be more offended by this campaign launch monstrosity. Daft Punk, Jim Im Jim Seth, or the poor, poor voters of WA.

Read this article:

These Liberal Politicians Dancing To Daft Punk Is Absolutely The ... - Junkee

LIBERAL 53, GREAT BEND 24 LIBERAL Western Athletic Conference leader Liberal outscored Great Bends girls 19-2 in the fourth quarter to roll past the Panthers 53-24 in Saturdays showdown for first place. Carly Dreiling scored seven points as Great Bend (10-9, 5-2) lost back-to-back games against Dodge City and Liberal to drop into second place. Liberal (14-4, 5-1 WAC) plays Garden City and Dodge City next week. Great Bend led 7-2 in the first quarter. Liberal used scoring runs in each quarter, 11-0 in the first; 9-0 in the second period; 7-0 in the third quarter; and 19-2 in the fourth period. Liberals Jada Mickens scored 14 points. The Panthers made 8 of 45 field goals, a 17 percent clip. Liberal dominated the boards 36-12. All night long we struggled to knock down shots, said Great Bend coach Carrie Minton. Liberal dominated the boards. It was a rough night.

Great Bend 7 8 7 2 24 Liberal 13 9 12 19 53 GREAT BENDCarly Dreiling 7, Carley Brack 6, Shailey Clark 4, Kate Warren 4, Keely Ireland 3. LIBERALMickens 14, Gonzales 9, Mullens 8, Gilmore 7, Lucero 4, Rush 3, Lucero 4, Hornya 3, Hay 2.

WESTERN ATHLETIC GIRLS Liberal 5-1 14-4 Great Bend 5-2 10-9 Hays High 3-3 10-8 Dodge City 2-4 6-12 Garden 1-6 5-14

FRIDAYS GAMES Dodge City 43, Great Bend 37 Hays High 51, Garden City 42

SATURDAYS GAME Liberal 53, Great Bend 24

Originally posted here:

Liberal girls beat Great Bend for first place - Great Bend Tribune

Concerned that a top political aide to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is running for the Liberal nomination in the federal riding of Markham-Thornhill, Ont., some potential candidates are reconsidering their plans and questioning if the contest is going to be a fair fight.

Liberal sources told The Hill Times that potential candidates are hoping to get a firm commitment from the party that the nomination contest will be truly fair and that the party will not pull the strings to ensure Prime Ministers Office appointments director Mary Ngs success in the contest.

One potential candidate considering arun for nomination described the top PMO aide as a parachute candidate who does not live in the riding. Ms. Ng lives in the riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont., currently represented by rookie Liberal MP Marco Mendicino.

Markham-Thornhill became vacant last month when Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) appointed six-term Liberal MP and former immigration minister John McCallum as Canadas ambassador to China.

If the party is behind her and the party machinery is behind her, itll be considered as parachuting a candidate, said a potential Liberal candidate, on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the party. This party, particularly, shouldnt be doing that because this party has always shown themselves as very open-minded and fair. They shouldnt parachute a candidate. Give everybody an opportunity to run.

Braeden Caley, the federal Liberal Partys senior director of communications, said the nomination contest is open and no candidate will receive special treatment.

Very clear rules for the nomination contest in all five anticipated coming byelections have been openly posted and available on the Liberal Partys website, and the nomination process in Markham-Thornhill will be fully in line with all of those rules, Mr. Caley told The Hill Times.

He added that a number of talented candidates have expressed interest in running for the nomination, but declined to share any names. He said the party has not finalized the date of the nomination contest.

The party has been approached by a variety of very talented prospective candidates in Markham-Thornhill and were working with all of them very closely on the details of the process, he said.

Ms. Ng. told The Hill Times shes not receiving special treatment.

Im starting at the same point as anyone else, as someone who wants to earn the support of people in Markham-Thornhill, she said. Its a lifelong dream for me to hold public office, and I spent 20 years in public service, and Im inspired to do this at this particular time. But Im starting like everyone else at this point.

Ms. Ng is a close friend of Katie Telford, chief of staff to Prime Minister Trudeau. Ms. Ng and Ms. Telford both worked in former Ontario Education minister Gerard Kennedys office more than a decade ago as senior ministerial aides at Queens Park.

Ms. Ng, who emigrated from Hong Kong to Canada at a young age, is now on a leave of absence from the PMO. She made her candidacy for Liberal nomination official on Feb. 15.

Proud and excited to announce my nomination to become the #Liberal Candidate for #Markham-Thornhill. Join me at votemaryng.ca #cdnpoli, she tweeted that day.

Prior to Ms. Ngs campaign launch, at least six candidates were testing the waters for the Liberal nomination in the riding, including Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, school board trustee Juanita Nathan, chartered accountant and former city councillor Khalid Usman, lawyer Scott Au, businesswoman Sofia Ming Sun, and lawyer Bang-Gu Jiang.

Three of these peopleMr. Au, Ms. Jiang, and Ms. Sunhave decided to endorse Ms. Ngs candidacy. Ontario International Trade Minister Michael Chan (previously considered a potential candidate), Markham Councillor Amanda Collucci, Vaughan Councillor Sandra Racco, and Francis Yuen, executive vice-president of the Markham-Thornhill Liberal Association, have also endorsed Ms. Ng.

Mr. Usman told The Hill Times last week that he had decided not to run for nomination for family reasons, and because its the start of the tax season, hed be busy with his business in the coming months.

Ms. Nathan said she has no concerns about the fairness of the nomination contest and has already been signing up members for two weeks.

Im going in with full force. Im going to go ahead, she said.

Mayor Scarpitti was not available for comment.

Mr. Au said its a valid point for potential candidates to think the nomination process might not be fair because of Ms. Ngs senior PMO position. But he said this was not a factor in his decision not to run and endorse Ms. Ng.

Rather, he said hes endorsing the top PMO adviser because of Ms. Ngs qualifications and her 20-year background working in politics, including her work with the Ontario government.

Ill argue that this is not about me, this is about the party, Mr. Au said. We want to have the best candidate for the job, and I feel that Mary is that [candidate], not because of her relationship with the prime minister, but because of her personal qualities.

The appointments director is one of the most senior positions in the PMO. This person manages the process and advises the prime minister on all governor-in-council appointments, which are about 3,500 in number. These positions include about 1,000 federally appointed judges, 100 ambassadors and high commissioners, 500 full-time and 1,900 part-time appointees in a wide array of agencies, boards, commissions, Crown corporations and government departments, according to the Privy Council Office website.

Senate appointments also fall under governor-in-council appointments, and Mr. Trudeau chooses new Senators on the non-binding recommendations of the Independent Senate advisory board.

Before advising the prime minister to fill specific positions, the PCO website says, the appointments director works closely with cabinet ministers and agency heads to ensure that appointments take into account Canadas diversity and meet the needs of the organization to which they are being made.

Ms. Ng told The Hill Times: As director of appointments, it was my responsibility to ensure that public appointments are made in a meritorious, open, transparent way, and to ensure that our public appointments are diverse and will achieve gender parity.

In a press release on the day of her campaign launch, she said shes the highest ranking Chinese-Canadian to have ever served in the PMO, and she recently accompanied and advised Mr. Trudeau on a trip to China.

Markham-Thornhill, a riding reconfigured prior to the last federal election, is one of the most multicultural ridings in the country with an 82 per cent visible-minority population. The two highest visible-minority groups in this riding are Chinese with 35.2 per cent of the population and South Asians with 30.8 per cent. This riding has the third highest visible minority population in the country after Scarborough North, Ont., which has 90.1 per cent, and Brampton East, Ont., with 87.6 per cent, according to data compiled by multiculturalism author and commentator Andrew Griffith.

Mr. McCallum won the riding in the last election with 55.7 per cent of the vote. Second-place Conservative candidate Jobson Easow won 32.3 per cent, and third-place NDP candidate Senthi Chelliah received 10.7 per cent.

There are 33 ridings in Canada with a visible-minority populations of more than 50 per cent, most of them in the Toronto or Vancouver areas. Of these, there are three ridings where this proportion is more than 80 per cent, all of which are in the Greater Toronto Area.

Besides Markham-Thornhill, four other ridings are vacant, including Ottawa-Vanier, Ont.; Calgary Heritage, Alta., Calgary Midnapore, Alta; and Saint-Laurent, Que. As of deadline last week, Mr. Trudeau had not called a byelection for any of these ridings.

arana@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times

Ridings with more than 50 per cent visible-minority population

Riding Name Province Visible Minority Population %

Scarborough North Ontario 90.1%

Brampton East Ontario 87.6%

Markham-Thornhill Ontario 82%

Vancouver South British Columbia 79.2%

Scarborough-Agincourt Ontario 79%

Markham-Unionville Ontario 78.8%

Mississauga-Malton Ontario 75.2%

Etobicoke North Ontario 72.8%

Surrey-Newton British Columbia 72.2%

York West Ontario 72.2%

Brampton West Ontario 71.2%

Vancouver Kingsway British Columbia 71.1%

Steveston-Richmond East British Columbia 70.5%

Richmond Centre British Columbia 70.3%

Scarborough-Rouge Park Ontario 70.2%

Scarborough-Guildwood Ontario 68.1%

Don Valley North Ontario 67.1%

Mississauga Centre Ontario 67%

Scarborough Centre Ontario 64.4%

Burnaby South British Columbia 63.4%

Fleetwood-Port Kells British Columbia 62.3%

Brampton North Ontario 61.4%

Willowdale Ontario 60.3%

Surrey Centre British Columbia 60.1%

Calgary Skyview Alberta 59.6%

Brampton South Ontario 59.5%

Mississauga-Erin Mills Ontario 59.5%

Don Valley East Ontario 55.9%

Richmond Hill Ontario 54.9%

York South-Weston Ontario 54.3%

Brampton Centre Ontario 53.7%

Scarborough Southwest Ontario 51.1%

Saint-Laurent Quebec 50.4%

Source: Andrew Griffith

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Potential candidates question fairness of Markham-Thornhill Liberal nomination as Trudeau aide runs - Hill Times (subscription)

I believe that words are important. We should be precise in our use of language and understand what it is we mean when we choose our words.

A word that does not, in my opinion, exemplify precision is used in political context. Tis word is liberal. It doesnt mean much these days. It is so particular to each individuals perspective of the world that it holds little universal value. It is a placeholder for deeper analysis of our beliefs, and it only manages to communicate a vague notion about which group we identify with, not the more nuanced reality of who we are.

I say this not to come off as pretentious but in an attempt to convince others that saying Im liberal provides an image that is unclear and misleading at best and deceitful at worst. This word is contaminated by various perceptions of its meaning. One person might say Im liberal and belong to a labor union. Another person might also identify as liberal but scoff at organized labor.

When people call themselves liberal, they assign themselves to one group or the other. The opposite in this scheme is typically conservative, and this word lacks meaning as well, but for now lets focus on the word liberal. One usually chooses to be liberal because of their parents or friends views but might not takethe time to investigate the deeper understanding of this label. What does liberal really mean? Do I share the same views as other liberals? Liberal divides us into in-groups and out-groups. Ultimately, I believe this word confines philosophical and political conversation into two camps and impedes introspection.

Let us explore this word and the philosophy behind it. Classical liberalism refers not to the policies espoused by the Democratic Party, some of which are wider freedoms for same-sex couples and a larger welfare state, but to political and economic freedom. This means a hands-off approach to the economy and to civil liberties. When one thinks of liberalism, one should think of figures like John Locke and Adam Smith. The actions of 20th century liberals like Franklin Delano Roosevelt would surely be seen as oppressive overreach by classic liberals. To call oneself a liberal today requires believing that the free market requires little to no government intervention. Most people dont mean that they are classically liberal.

Sure, words sometimes change in meaning. Today, some people use literally as an adverb that exaggerates a verb or noun. When used in this way, they mean something is figurative, not literal. But the word literally provides more hyperbolea stronger, bolder metaphor than to say figuratively. The problem is that one person sees literally as meaning exactly or strictly as the word suggests, but the other sees the word as an intensifier. The problem is that these people are playing different games with language.

This idea of a language game was formed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian-British philosopher. He focused on language and communication throughout his life, specifically our failure to communicate. He believed that miscommunication occurs when people are playing different language games. These language games refer to the different ways we use words as tools in our communication with others. For instance, one type of game might involve discussing facts. The sentence The Gateway Arch is 630 feet tall deals with a game of facts. You never listen to what Im saying is a sentence that deals not with facts but expresses an emotion. One feels as though the other does not pay them enough attention.

These games are used for different purposes, and when two people are playing different language games and also do not recognize the differences in the games that they are playing, the meaning of the message is lost. When someone describes themselves with the vague adjective liberal or conservative, there is ambiguity as to what game they are playing and what they really mean when they use one of these words.

I believe that we should describe ourselves accurately and take more time to find out what it is we really believe rather than connecting ourselves with an in-group and an out-group. Todays version of liberal, even if you distinguish between social and the economic issues, is not descriptive enough to convey the complexity of ones views. Giving a language monopoly to this word sacrifices clarity for simplicity, but this simplicity reduces our meaning too far. Saying Im liberal only causes miscommunication.

Excerpt from:

Why I do not call myself a liberal - The University News

Activists have already circled a number of Senate Democrats who have failed to meet their standards, including vulnerable and increasingly rare red-state Democrats. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

On the evening Donald Trump announced his supreme court nominee, thousands of protesters gathered outside of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumers Brooklyn apartment. They chanted Just vote no and Obstruct while carrying signs Get a spine, Chuck and a prop skeleton to illustrate their point.

The protesters are part of a sudden swell of liberal activism that has drawn millions to city streets and airport concourses across the US, in a startling show of resistance to Trumps presidency. Emboldened by this groundswell, some progressives have started using the word primary as a verb and as a threat.

For Democrats in Washington, many of whom are still surprised by the scale and furiousness of backlash, the challenge is how to convert this energy into electoral success.

Schumer has significantly slowed the pace of Trumps cabinet confirmations and excoriated many of the presidents nominees. But the activists outside Schumers home on that January night were unimpressed by his votes in favor of Trumps nominees to represent the US in the UN and to lead the Pentagon, CIA and Department of Homeland Security.

Our message to Democrats is simple: fight Trump or well find someone who will, said Waleed Shahid, a co-founder of the progressive group All of Us and a former organizer with the Bernie Sanders campaign. This week, the group launched the political action committee We Will Replace You, the latest in a series of projects to warn Democrats that failures to oppose Trumps agenda will have consequences.

Our message to Democrats is simple: fight Trump or well find someone who will

The group argues that Democrats need to exercise the little political power they still have. The activists have a long list of demands: votes against all Trump appointees, opposing his supreme court nominee, using congressional procedures to bring all business to a crawl to block Trumps agenda and demand Steve Bannon be fired. Elected officials, they say, should publicly support impeachment if Trump is found to have broken the law or violated the constitution.

The activists have already circled a number of Senate Democrats who have failed to meet their standards, including vulnerable and increasingly rare red-state Democrats, such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. Both Democrats are up for re-election in 2018.

The Democratic party establishment wants the support of the Tea Party of the left but they dont want to earn it, Shahid said, alluding to the 2010 movement that mobilized rightwing activists, confronted moderate Republicans and helped the party take control of the House in a wave.

They say they love the grassroots activism, but they dont want to take the next step and challenge the Democratic leadership.

Their demands put leaders such as Schumer in a bind. With his party shut out of power in Washington, public shows of support are arguablyits most powerful weapon, but he must also worry about the lawmakers in his caucus facing elections in states where Trump won.

Democrats must defend 23 Senate seats in the 2018 election cycle, 10 from states that Trump won in November. Already, outside groups have targeted these vulnerable red-state Democrats to try to soften their opposition to Trumps nominees for the cabinet and supreme court.

Activists threatening to primary Democrats live in a bubble. They have no idea how to win places that arent sky blue

The activists threatening to primary [support a primary challenge to] Democratic candidates live in a bubble, said Jim Kessler, a former Schumer aide and co-founder of a centrist thinktank, Third Way. They have no idea how to win in places that arent sky blue already.

Kessler believes the path back to power will require the Big Tent party to grow geographically, and not just move sharply to the left with its demands. In his view, red-state Democrats are an endangered species worth protecting not threatening.

The activists campaign says its goal is not necessarily to primary the candidates and that the threat becomes a tool that successfully pushes Democrats to fight Trump harder.

Blanket obstructionism has proven to be a tall order even for progressive politicians from safely Democratic states. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a progressive favorite from Massachusetts, has already been forced to defend her vote for Ben Carson for secretary of housing and urban development.

A number of activists who support using this tactic agreed that the real test will be the supreme court battle. Senate Democrats have the ability to filibuster Trumps nominee, Neil Gorsuch, meaning that Republicans need to earn support from at least eight Democrats to confirm Gorsuch unless the controlling party changes the rules.

This nominee cannot be allowed to ever take the oath of office. It just cannot be allowed to happen, said Anthony Rogers-Wright, a Seattle-based climate and environmental activist who was a surrogate for the Sanders campaign.

If any Democrat does not take part in a mass filibuster theyre disqualified.

Already, a handful of senators have flatly refused to support Gorsuch, arguing that Republicans stole the seat from Barack Obama when they refused, for a record 293 days, to hold a hearing for his nominee, Merrick Garland. But more have said Gorsuch deserves a fair hearing, and that they will wait to hear more about his views and background before making a decision.

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Liberal voters warn Democratic officials: resist Trump or be replaced - The Guardian

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President Trump made a remark about Sweden at Sundays campaign-style rally in Florida.

Trump said, Weve got to keep our country safe. You look at whats happening in Germany, you look at whats happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?

Liberal outlets immediately seized on the comment to express indignation and mockery. Trump was seemingly discussing terrorism when he brought up Sweden. But Sweden hasnt had a terrorist attack recently.

Vox ran an article titled, Trumps invention of a Swedish terrorist attack was funny. But it likely comes from a dark place, that argued that Trumps mention of Swedens immigration policy was motivated by a long history of sexual panics in the West about non-white immigrants.

Washington Post wrote, The influx of refugees has not come without problems in Sweden, but mainstream politicians and immigration experts say the criticism has been disproportionate.

New York Times wrote, Last Night in Sweden? Trumps Remark Baffles a Nation.

Swedes joined in on the fun, too:

The Swedish government is alsoreportedly looking for an explanation from the U.S.

Its unknown how much crime is committed by immigrants in Sweden since the governmentrefuses to collect statistics on immigrant crime.

However, we do know that refugee gangs have also been a menace at Swedish festivals two years in a row.

Sexual assault has risen by 70 percent in two years, and more than 13 percent of women report being afraid to go out at night.

Other European countries with similar immigrant populations show evidence of a high incidence of immigrant crime. Despite making up 8 percent of Frances population, Muslims are estimated to make up more than 70 percent of the prison population.

Donald Trump responded Sundayon Twitter:

Follow Justin on Twitter

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Liberal Media Mocks Trump For Claim About Sweden - Daily Caller

Liberal MP John Alexander says people buying a home should be competing with other people buying a home, not wealthy investors with tax-favoured concessions. Photograph: AAP

The government is working on changes to capital gains tax despite senior figures insistence it has not formed a proposal or intention to do so, Liberal MP John Alexander has said.

Responding to the comments the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, has again rejected the suggestion the government could cut the capital gains tax discount.

Last week the Australian Financial Review reported that the government was considering reducing the 50% CGT concession for property investors, in a major about-face, or increasing the length of time a property would have to be owned before it was eligible for the concession.

On Thursday Malcolm Turnbull moved to shut down the suggestion, saying the government had no intention or plan to change capital gains tax or negative gearing.

But Alexander told Sky News on Sunday that the prime ministers statement did not mean CGT changes were off the table.

I think, again, listen to the words very carefully. When our prime minister says we have no plans that is correct, he said Are we working on plans? Yes we are.

And are those in our party who are promoting that as another issue that could be addressed, I think the answer is yes, were looking at that also.

Alexander also said the government should look again at negative gearing but stopped short of endorsing Labors plans to abolish it.

He said it was a a dynamic tool and it can be used to slow a car down or speed the market up, in reference to his plan to change rates of tax deductibility in response to market conditions.

People buying a home should be competing with other people buying a home, not wealthy investors with tax-favoured concessions.

The assistant treasurer, Michael Sukkar, who has responsibility for housing affordability, told Sky News on Sunday that there were literally dozens of different ideas generated by the government and public service on the issue.

Sukkar said he would not engage in a process of ruling in or out individual changes because a housing affordability package could contain multiple finely calibrated measures.

He repeated that there was no proposal or intention to change CGT.

Asked about Alexanders comments on Monday Cormann told ABCs AM there is no such proposal in front of the government.

We went to the last election promising no increases in taxes on investment specifically, no reduction in the capital gains tax discount, no changes to negative gearing we stick to our commitments.

Im not working on any plans I can assure you.

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Liberal backbencher says capital gains tax changes are still on table ... - The Guardian