What a Name!

The guy in charge of the Catholic Church around Manila was the former Cardinal Sin. Quite an interesting name for a religious person, especially one with that sort of ranking.

Another interesting name for a Filipino institution is the Wack-Wack Country Club which is scheduled to hold The Philippine Open Golf Tournament. What a name for a golf club, huh? However, don't say it with a long A sound say it more along the lines of Wok-Wok.

Testing Bullets

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Loophole Vs.Loophole

What is a loophole? A loophole is a slur used to denigrate shortcomings in the written law. We are hearing a lot about loophole of late, most notably in hte form of Loophole Louis the nickname of Louis Butler candiate for the supreme coutr of Wisconsin.

Typically screams loophole when a taxable entity follow the tax law to their advantage and the right does it when an attorney or a judge follows the exact law to the benefit a convicted criminal on appeal.

Am I equivicating here? Am I proposing a moral equivalence here? If I were not yet done then I suppose so but I am not done.

One category of loophole favors the people the other the government. Why am I not surprised the left favors elinating loopholes to favor the government. The left often talks up the rich and business using loopholes to minimize their tax bill. Of course, this means reduced tax revenue so the left knee jerkingly opposes such loopholes.

However, loopholes used to spring the accused or the convicted are often praised by the left. Of course, the government suffers to in this case but it is society that often directly and physically bears the burden of loopholes used to spring.

So when we hear the left slam the use of loophole when it comes to Louis Butler think no less than their ox being gored.

Today's Birthday Composer

Today's birthday wishes go out to Béla Bartók who would be 127 years old today!

Mr. Bartók's music is considered modern and does sound different from music written in earlier periods.

Whenever I play my only CD of Bartók's music I think of the UAE in particular Khor Fakkan and the surrounding area. When I had picked up Bartók's concerto for orchestra shortly before leaving for the UAE so that piece closely associates with the UAE.

Here is the Wiki entry on his most famous work.

Anyway, here is the last movement from Béla Bartók's concerto for orchestra. You may recognize the piece from a movie or a television show:

Crossover Voting

There is some chatter about persecuting those who crossed party lines to vote in the opponent's primary elections. Yes, I use the word persecute rather than prosecute on purpose.

I do not crossover, I am conservative and my business during primary voting is to choose candidates for my party. I believe primary season is party business and the state has absolutely no business running and conducting primary elections.

Political parties are private entities, albeit private entities that have a lot of impact upon public affairs. As private entities the parties should not be entitled to state handouts to help them select their candidates. This goes for the GOP as well as the Democrats.

The caucus system is the way to go. The county party caucuses are the way to go. The county organizations caucuses only allowing paid members to participate. The decisions those counties make bubble up to the state level and then to the national level.

I KNOW...

that my redeemer liveth.

Happy Easter to all and may the Risen Lord serve as an example for you to emulate!

From Handel's Messiah Oratorio:

Happy Birthday Happy Birthday!

Today is the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685). It is important to spell out the full name as a number of JS Bach's sons went on to achieve musical fame.

JS Bach was a prodigious composer composing over 1100 pieces, an amazing number. WA Mozart who comes shortly after JS Bach composed over 600 works, and Beethoven appears to have composed about half of that, and it seems to me as time goes on composers publish less work.


Anyway, here is one of my favorite Bach pieces:


Happy birtday JS Bach – you would be 323 years old today!

Passport Snooping

There are reports Obama's passport data was looked at by State Department employees who had no business looking at it. Interestingly enough, the article I link to mentions a similar breach back into President Clinton's passport file, but does not say anything about about this breach of personal files. Anyway enough of that.

Is your data secure from snooping eyes? To a certain extent it is, but all companies using computers to manage and work large volumes of data your information is probably okay due to the small minnow in a large school scheme. However, do know your data may be used for testing.

Programmers need to test their work. Testing business systems is rarely as simple as just "running the program". In fact, the program change may be less than one hour of work and less than a whole line of code, but the testing may take weeks to complete. Not only do we need data resembling real world data we may need lots of it. One of the better ways to create test scenarios is to copy data from a companies real world environment (hereafter referred to as "production").

The alternative is to create the data from scratch, but most often the programmer does not know how to create reasonable data. Data in most systems is exhaustively and continuously edited and unless the programmer is very familiar with the rules up to the point they are testing it may be a huge effort to learn those rules. To create the data I am working on from scratch may actually take weeks to create and then I still have to run the tests.

As it turns out, this snooping was done on an equal opportunity basis, that is the passport files of Senators Clinton, Obama, and McCain were looked into. Not a matter for the Secretary to involve herself in and more a matter for the managers of the naughty employees to give the naughty ones a good talking too.

Lincolnesque? Hardly.

I saw multiple presskopfs talking about how the JFK Lama's speech was like Linconln's Gettysburg Address.

Here is what the contemporaneous Chicago Times had to say about the Gettysburg Address:

The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States."

Source: Dishwatery Utterances – MOO2 Ironically, the presskophfs talk about like this when it comes to W. So, the JFK Lama has already received his kudos.

Another interesting comparison is Lincoln's talk was at time somewhat similar to Rev. Wright's. Lincoln called the referred to the Civil War as pennance for America's sin of slavery.

The Butler Ad

The Wisconsin blogosphere is in a turmoil over an ad put out by (not certain if it was the Gableman campaign or another interested party).

The ad's controversy is two-fold. Clearly, a battling attorney would be justified in objecting over leading the witness (or in this case the voter). However, looking at the ad it is not as blatant as the left is making it out to be. The ad notes Butler defended mugs and thugs while Gableman sentenced them, that is it made a statement that Justice Butler was acting in a capacity other than judge. The impression many on the left leave me with is they think the ad is leading others to think a decision by Butler from the bench sprung the criminal. Just prior to 26 seconds into the video (below) the ad makes a claim that while on its face is true is a set of loosely unconnected facts. If I wrote in this style I would have to use ellipses.

Butler defended a certain child molester. Mr. Butler managed to defend his client somewhat successfully, but in the end the client was convicted, sentenced, and served the sentence. When released the molester struck again. The ad in question snips out pieces of the story and does not include ellipses. The ad leads one to believe the child molester immediately struck again after Butler sprung him from prison on a technicality.

So, I am not going to defend the Gableman ad on that one. Even Owen at Boots and Sabers thinks the ad is misleading.

However, some on the left are also attacking the ad calling it racist. Yawn, they see racism in a dog taking a dump in their flower garden. Such claims are crying wolf.

In recent years I have noticed quite a number of State Supreme Court races being barraged with law and order style advertising. It works too, the left has to figure out a way to deal with this and they can not seem to. Crying wolf errr, I mean racism works real well. Ask Michael Dukakis about that.

James Wigderson comes up with some interesting insight:

I think it's fair to remind the voters that Butler was a public defender. Here's an ugly little secret. People don't like defense lawyers unless they need one. Then they're thanking whatever deity is at hand. Now, I like defense lawyers. I like all lawyers unless they're sitting on committees trying to control an election or, even worse, sitting on an election board. But I'm the exception. Most people root for the prosecution. Why do you think Law and Order is so popular? Do you think it would still be so popular if the public defenders ran circles around Arthur Branch?

If being a public defender was popular with the public, there would be more of them on the public payroll and they would be paid more.

Source: Wigderson Library and Pub – Since you asked I think James makes a good point Justice Butler's experience as a public defender makes him easy to paint as defending the indefensible. As the old saying goes, it is a dirty (call Mike Rowe) and thankless job but someone has to do it. Justice Butler did that and he, his campaign, and his supporters have to come up with a better way of dealing with that fact than crying wolf, errr racism.

Spinning Jeremiah Wright

Ah so much fun listening to the left attempt to justify and minimize Jeremiah Wright.

There is a set of standard talking points I am hearing over and over.

He is Mild Compared To Others

Yeah and so what for it? This is an attempt to change the subject. Variations on this theme are there are many more like him.

Neither argument is a reasonable defense of Jeremiah Wright's rhetoric, in fact neither claim attempts to defend or explain. It is an illusionist's trick trying to distract people from the very inflammatory rhetoric of one close to a man who is potentially the next president of the USA. What Mr. Wright says is key not what some other preacher down the street says. It is Jeremiah Wright who is close to Barak Obama not any other preacher.

Candidate X did not have to explain away his religious affiliation.

Really? How about Mitt Romney? Seems to me John McCain just disowned a preacher whose church Mr. McCain is not a member of, was not married by, whose children were not baptized by nor has any other association with.

To say Republican candidates do not have to answer for their religious affiliation is either a lie or willful ignorance. Do you think if John McCain had close ties to Pat Robertson the left would not be screaming about this?

The statements are taken out of context

This is the stupidest defense of all. This man accuses white people of inventing AIDS to destroy the black race and that is not his only stupidity. How is that to be taken out of context?

Radio talk show host Doug Stephans was in Jeremiah's church over the weekend (according to his talk this morning) and Doug notes how nice it all was. Well, yippy-skippy again the problem is Jeremiah's association with Barak Obama and it is clearly more than that of the crazy uncle. Doug says everyone was so nice in the church. Again, this is not about everyone it is about Jeremiah Wright.

Jeremiah Wright is a racist pure and simple. Plain folk can see that however many are blinded by the transfiguration of Obama.

Stand By Their Man

A lot of people are wondering why Mrs. Spitzer stood with Mr. Spitzer as he confessed to marital infidelity to the nation. Many supposed she should be out looking for a divorce attorney.

For shame for shame. Mrs. Spitzer decided to stand by her man. I salute her for that, the cynical say she is hoping to caboose onto bigger things for herself. Yeah, perhaps and so what? Marriages are about giving support and boosts to the other. The vow husband and wife swear to each other is for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, till death do us part. Mrs. Spitzer takes her vows seriously.

At the end of Mozart's Le Nozze Di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro - a story that eternally rings true) Count Almaviva (Elliot Spitzer) finds what he thinks is Figaro messing around with the Countess. Count Almaviva immediately is angered and starts looking for weapons and summoning witnesses. Then the true Countess (Silda Spitzer) reveals herself dressed in Susanna's clothes (Figaro's wife) and it is revealed that Susanna is wearing the clothes of the Countess. The Count is humbled and begs for the forgiveness he was just denying to the woman he thought his wife and to Figaro.

Susanna: Perdono! Perdono! Pardon! Pardon!
Count Almaviva No, no, non vo' darlo!. No! No! I will not give it!
Figaro: Perdono! Perdono! Pardon! Pardon!
Count Almaviva No, no, non vo' darlo!. No! No! I will not give it!
All: Perdono! Perdono! Pardon! Pardon!
Count Almaviva No, no, non vo' darlo!. No! No! I will not give it!

After the ruse is revelead:
Count Almaviva: Contessa, perdono! Countessa, Pardon!
The Countess: Più docile io sono, - e dico di sì. I am gentler, and I grant it you.
see: this site for the complete lyrics in Italian and the English translation.

Eliot Spitzer's life has been only No, no, non vo' darlo! and when he needs pardon he gets Più docile io sono, - e dico di sì.. How fortunate he is. God Bless you Silda Spitzer and may your loving forgiveness teach your husband a lesson.

I do not suppose her a doormat, I suppose the atmosphere in their home is tense and will take time to ease, I do not suppose either of their roles are easy right now.

Anyway in celebration of mercy and love here is the final scene of Le Nozze Di Figaro:

Looking for the Hordes of Non-Smokers

One of the points many in the ban smoking movement use to try to convince bar owners and operators is the number of people patronizing bars will increase after the ban. However, most of the stories I hear about is how bar patronage drops after smoking bans go into affect.

Don't buy the occasional hidden camera story showing a post-ban full packed bar. It is one bar and most likely the time and location are chosen for the full bar. Plus the hidden cameras most likely has a wide-angle lens exaggerating that which is close and over-minimizing that which is far. So our budding Geraldo is not in a full bar but next to the crowd watching Chad do an incredibly crazy thing and the rest of the bar is empty. Video evidence such as this is extremely subject to manipulation. Bars letting workers go due to the reduced business is much more convincing.

Now, one thing I think it very worth emphasizing is how at least one bar in Appleton swears that even if people manage to repeal the smoking ban they will still NOT allow smoking in their bar. Hallelujah brother and I will fight just the same any requirement forcing you to allow smoking in your tavern!

I tip my hat to Owen at Boots and Sabers for the photo.

These are More Than Spin

They are not just spinning the ball they are spitting on it too.

We are hearing a lot on Eliot Spitzer and the usual lines: "its just sex", "everyone does it", and that old favorite about how in Europe this sort of thing is barely mentioned and if at all on the back-page of the newspaper.

They are not just applying spin, they are applying spit too.

In Europe This is no big Deal

Yeah and so what? This is not Europe. In any event, I do not buy the premise.

Recent European Sex Scandals

1. Here is a European political sex scandal from 2006.


2. Here is another from 2007.


3. Am I done yet? Nope, here is a very current one from Greece.

Spending more time would likely yield some more, but I stop with three. So, the claim that in "enlightened Europe" sexual misconduct by political officials never amounts to anything is demonstrably false. They do get attention and cause problems for those caught up in them, even in "sophisticated and enlightened Europe".

It is just sex

Is it? If you read the articles I link to above, you will note the word extort in its various forms and the word blackmail. Eliot Spitzer is the chief executive of a state and not just any state but one of the more important states in the Union and what he and his government does affects the rest of the nation. If you do not believe that, ask former employees of the Strong Company.

Eliot Spitzer put himself into a compromised position that affected his personal life, his political life, and the lives of those he leads and the nation which his state is the financial cornerstone for. He should know the mob is keenly interested in the affairs of politicians and is most likely keenly interested in photographs of people like him in compromising situations.

In any event, at the start it was not about at all about sex, but rank corruption. Is Elliot Spitzer corrupt, was he on the take? Was he embezzling public funds for his trysts? I strongly suspect NO to both, but he was attempting to circumvent laws designed to prevent such acts and to prevent money laundering.

Everyone Does It

No they do not. Just remember what your mother asked if you friends jumped over a high cliff would you follow?.

The Backs of Others

El Baboso at the Belmont Club wonders:

As I thought about this last night, an interesting thought came to mind. Spitzer is supposed to be this hotshot DA. He put lots of businessmen away for money laundering, fraud, stealing from the shareholders, etc. He must have gone before a few judges for wiretaps. But then he doesn't know that if he is moving money from account to account and making big cash payments to an offshore corporation (which is how the Emperor's Club took its payments), the Feds wouldn't come after him? LOL! All of which begs [ed. NO, invites not begs] the questions:

* Is he that arrogant?
* Is he that stupid?
* Did he want to get caught?
* Is he a phony? A classically power-hungry sociopath who took all of the credit while his beaten-down minions did all of the work? [emphasis added]

Source: The Belmont Club – El Baboso's Commentary on "The ring" I think it is a combination of point 1 and 2 driven by point four. I wonder on how many backs the shoes of Eliot Sptizer are imprinted into?

Violating Public Covenants in Private

Eliot Spitzer falls.

At National Review Online Jonah Goldberg discusses how we should view this case. Essentially Jonah comes down on the side of judgment, noting Spitzer's misdeeds are now public so we have no choice to judge:

Still, to say that something is a "private matter" is not the same thing as saying something is beyond the scope of our judgment. If Tom is a drunk, it may be a private matter but that hardly means I must approve of his "lifestyle." If one of my married friends was repeatedly visiting hookers, I might say for the sake of social peace that it's none of my business, but I would still think much less of him. And, if he became more and more brazen — and hence more and more humiliating for the man's wife and family — the more likely it would become that I would feel compelled to say something.

Source: The Corner – Judging Spitzer by Jonah Goldberg Clearly, Jonah strikes a sensible and just balance.

A reader e-mails Jonah reminding us wedding vows (which are what Mr. Spitzer broke among other things) are public affairs. Weddings must be witnessed, they must be conducted by an official duly authorized by the state, they are licensed by the state, and when they break down it is often the state who helps to sort the wreckage out and the state may become responsible for one or more people.

Eliot Spitzer showed an incredible lack of judgment. Being former attorney general of New York has to realize the connections prostitution often has with the mob and the fact he put himself into an extortable position:

"I [Rep. Peter King R-NY] don't know anyone who is more self-righteous or unforgiving than Eliot Spitzer. So he's going to have a hard time finding friends right now...

"Spitzer himself was very severe going after prostitution rings that had to do with white collar crimes. He was very hard-nosed with his tactics. To leave himself open to blackmail — putting himself and the state in a compromised position like that — it's just awful."

Source: The Corner – Self-righteous and unforgiving. by David Freddoso

Eliot Spitzer is the chief law enforcement officer of the state of New York. While most executives prioritize what laws they enforce it is hardly a good thing to violate those laws, especially ones he has gone after.

As far as private citizen Eliot Spitzer goes I think him a lout who betrayed the trust of his wife and children.

Shame on the New York Philharmonic!

I am somewhat disgusted by the New York Philharmonic's performance in North Korea.

They lent credence and credibility to a despotic government, not only a despotic government, but one that can not create an environment conducive enough to economic activity so the people there can eat. Yeah, I saw the reporting of the New York Philharmonic members being feted by the North Korean government, it did not look like they were eating grass.

I am all for cultural exchange and trying to come to mutual understandings, but until North Korea is able to put first things first we should not be helping the North Korean tyranny paper over the horrible life of the average North Korean.

The irony is one of the performers is the granddaughter of North Korean escapees. Pray tell Ms. Kim, why did your grandparents flee?

I wrote this post sometime ago, but it was suspended in edit mode. I publish now.

Boeing Boing!

Years ago when overseas one of my colleagues was a graduate from Embry Riddle University. We traveled to Africa once and I remember him referring to the Boeing planes we rode on as "Boings" an obvious play on words.

However, Boeing of late is the focus of political angst. The Air Force just sealed a deal with Airbus (the European airline manufacturing consortium) to build replacements for the USAF's aging in-air plane refueling fleet.

I recently received e-mail about this:

Recently a contract to build a tanker for our airforce (35 billion dollars) was awarded to a company in FRANCE! I dunno, but it seems to me that there are quite a few working US citizens who would benefit from doing the work that the defense department wants to send to France. Our corporations outsource jobs, businesses over-use H-1b visas and do not hire citizens, we have a huge trade deficit... I could go on and on.

E-Mail from a known but unnamed sender In fact, the Democrats are jumping on this too, pinning it all on – John McCain. However, people should not forget that not too long ago Boeing was caught trying to ripoff the American taxpayer in a deal to...replace the tanker fleet.

David Freddoso at National Review Online has the details:

In 2001, the United States Air Force wanted to begin replacing 500 of its aging refueling planes. The plan began with a sweetheart deal, buried in the fine print of the 2002 defense-authorization bill. The Air Force was to lease 100 Boeing fuel tankers at a cost of $26 billion — $6 billion more than the cost of buying them outright, according to an estimate by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

If that sounds like a bad deal, it’s because it was. It never occurred, thanks to loud and persistent protests from Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.). And now that McCain is a candidate for president and Boeing’s rival has won the contract, Democrats are effectively complaining that he didn’t let Boeing rip off the taxpayers.

...

When McCain finally received the e-mails, the Boeing tanker deal exploded. The investigation revealed malfeasance, resulting in a $615 million fine for the company. Boeing’s CEO, Phil Condit, was forced to resign. The company’s CFO was sent to prison. Darleen Druyun, who had served as the second-ranking civilian official for Air Force procurement, also went to prison. She pled guilty in 2004 to steering the tanker contract and other deals toward Boeing in the hopes of later securing lucrative jobs with the company for herself and her family members.

Source: A Good Deal of Credit to McCain for Stopping a Bad Deal (Boeing and blame.) by David Freddoso Essentially, Boeing was attempting to ripoff the taxpayers and is now attempting to use its status as a domestic corporation to let it get away with this bad behavior. Now, the e-mail I have brings up the usual points about jobs going overseas but Mr. Freddoso notes most of the work of constructing the planes will take place here in the USA.

What is interesting though, is those who normally whine about how American Corporations abuse the taxpayer and the people are now leaping to Boeing's defense or more accurately are using this case to beat up on John McCain. You see John McCain sniffed out the putrid deal and put an end to it. I am all for having American companies do this work, but they should not feel so entitled to it they think they can grossly and corruptly overcharge for the work and product.

My Thoughts on Brett's Retirement

You know it had to happen, you just did not think it would happen now and are shocked when it does happen.

One thing I feel for certain. Coach McCarthy & GM Thompson may not have been pushing Brett out the door, but from day one you could tell they were not going to bend over backwards to keep him around. I can understand this, after all they knew Brett was at the end of his QB career and to tie the future of the Packers to Brett would not be a good idea.

I do believe the talk about Moss. In hindsight I wish Randy would have come to town I believe Vince's legacy would have returned to Green Bay had the Packers had Randy Moss. No one believed Andre Rison was a model citizen or was going to be a Packer for more than one season, but his coming to Green Bay was critical to the Packer's getting to and winning Super Bowl XXXI. It would have been a lot better way to leave with Brett hoisting the Vince Lombardi trophy than the way it ended.

Thanks Brett!

il Prette Rosso - A Birthday Wish!

Antonio Vivaldi aka the Red Priest turns 329 years old today!

We start you off with the first movement from his mandolin concerto in C Major:


Of course, Vivaldi's most known works are his set of four concertos known as The Four Seasons. Each concerto focuses on one of the four seasons and the music is written to evoke images of the season. Whether the joy of the return of the sun in springtime, the hot muggies in summer (followed by the wickedly violent storm), the celebration of the fall harvest, or the quiet contentment of sitting in front of the fire in the winter time:

To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while those outside are drenched by pouring rain.

Source: WikiPedia – The Four Seasons (Vivaldi) Winter Antonio Vivaldi's music was among the earliest works in my classical music collection and good thing. His works are typified by often times very fast, light and bouncy, almost always catchy.

Here is the third movement from the Summer Concerto: The second movement evokes the lazy dog days of summer where it is hot and muggy and most people prefer to laze under a shade tree with a cold drink, and then the storm hits! The storm movement is the third (the second movement foreshadows the storm with sounds evoking approaching thunder),

One complaint I have heard people lodge against il Prette Rosso is many of his works seem to resemble each other closely, to be honest, the charge is not ill founded. Vivaldi's unfamiliar works are often easy to pick out, but this does not lessen his career. Vivaldi was an accomplished musician, teacher, and composer of music.

Not Just the QB But the Team Too!

I am not commenting specifically on Brett Favre but will refer to him.

When Brett did not have a good team around him, his numbers looked terrible. Large numbers of interceptions, reduced touchdowns, reduced wins, etc. This is because football is a team sport. Don't get me wrong, the quarterback is very important to a team's success but a QB who tries to do it all by himself throws a lot of interceptions.

Same too with a presidential effort. The President relies a whole lot on the team they work with and recruit. It is not enough to look simply at the QB (the candidate) and make a determination based solely on the candidate, you have to look at the team they surround themselves with.

To a large extent this is what I believe is going on with Obama & the Canadian Fiasco (Blame Canada! Blame Canada!), Obama in his naivety may actually believe he is going to rip up NAFTA or renegotiate it on terms more favorable to the USA. His advisers apparently do not nor do I. This is quite normal and do not believe it necessarily a bad thing, teams and their leaders in liberal societies do have a fair amount of give and take about where the team goes.

However, this sort of thing is going to happen again before Obama is out of the race or in the Whitehouse.

Changing the Story

Is that what Barak Obama means by change?

National Review's Byron York reports on the trouble the Obama campaign is in, over its discussions with the Canadian government on NAFTA. Of course, none of this will matter to those attending the revival meetings, but there are a lot of people who have genuine concerns on both sides of the NAFTA debate.

Those criticisms have been particularly intense in the run-up to today’s primary in economically struggling Ohio. At last week’s debate in Cleveland, Obama and Clinton dueled to see who could be more anti-NAFTA; Obama won, at least rhetorically, by promising to “use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage” to renegotiate NAFTA on his own terms.

Source: National Review Online – Is Obama Lying About NAFTAGate? (He certainly doesn’t seem to be telling the whole truth.) by Byron York The story is essentially Barak Obama is talking trash about NAFTA (a somewhat trendy thing to do among the left) and threatening to withdraw or to force a renegotiation. Of course, this talk disturbs our NAFTA treaty partners, but the Canadian trade minister thinks it might be a good idea:

Ottawa — Trade Minister David Emerson suggested the United States has a sweet deal over access to Canada's oil under the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying the two Democratic presidential candidates calling for renegotiations may not know just how good the U.S. has it under the deal.

Source: ViveleCanada.ca Emerson Says Oil On The Table If US Wants To Renegotiate NAFTA (Oil would be on table if NAFTA reopened: Emerson hints) by Julian Beltrame of The Canadian Press Anyway, it is clearly not something Canada wants and Canada is just reminding us it is probably something we really do not want either.

However, the story goes on. Anyway there were denials from Canada and from the Obama campaign and then a memo turns up showing the meeting did take place. Byron's piece details the evolving story complete with continued denials, more reporting on the meeting, an official memo from the Canadian Government, an oh-yeah from the Obama official, and continued story evolution from the Obama campaign. The only side presenting a dead story (i.e. non-changing/non-evolving) is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the only changing aspect of that reporting is on the scrambling by the Canadian Goverment and the Obama campaign.

One further dodge the Obama campaign and Austan Goolsbee (an Obama adviser from the University of Chicago) tried to foist on the public was the notion Mr. Goolsbee was visiting the Canadian Consulate as an official from the university and not the Campaign. However, CBC published memo indicates Mr. Goolsbee was there representing the campaign.

The point of the meeting was to assure the Canadian Government Obama's trashing of NAFTA is nothing more than words. Now, the only thing in doubt now (according to Byron's investigations and reporting) is exactly what was said between the parties.

The Obama campaign is in a quandary here. The campaign promising to bring change and hope is now appearing to be using the lofty rhetoric with a sly wink. Not unheard of, but hardly anything that could be change (in fact, this is they type of back room dealing the Obama campaign is trying to tell us they want to change).

Of course, the Obama campaign may issue a tough and detailed policy they would pursue in harmony with the revival meeting rhetoric. Canada, of course being a foreign entity, has little they can do to steer the our elections one way or another, but then this goes against all sorts of Democrat rhetoric about playing nice with the nations of the world.

Do not hope Obama will change much of anything.