Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone who has stopped by my little piece of cyberspace over this past year and here is hoping that you and yours have a great 2010.

Please enjoy my second favorite Christmas Film. (FYI: It is a Wonderful Life is #1)

From Canada's own NFB.

Credibility.

Totally shot!




You need more. Listen as Elizabeth May rewrites history @ approx 38:00. Note to Elizabeth, Germany declared war on the USA first on Dec 11, 1941 and not the other way around. It is kind of hard to ignore a declaration of war against you no matter how much the public resistance. Considering just how much she is versed on this time period I wonder how she got this wrong.

Still more. Watch as she tries to lie her way out of her own words.

Elizabeth May's credibility = zero.


ht Petalusa and Unambiguously Ambidextrous.

Bizzaro Copenhagen

Just a couple of things that happened at the summit in Copenhagen that leave me wondering.


How is it that Jack Layton, the guy rallying against the HST because the increase in taxes will harm families, can be in favour of the proposed fund of upwards of 200 billion dollars collected from the 'developed' countries (including about 30 billion from Canada) ? Wouldn't taking 30 billion dollars from Canadians and their families be a much greater burden than the HST would?


Was Al Gore trying to make sure that the "Gore effect" did not happen again when he called for the world leader to meet in Mexico in July rather than the proposed date in late fall? I mean what are the odds that it would snow in Mexico City in July?


Why did the PM get such a rough ride from the same media and lefty environmentalists who were falling all over themselves praising Obama? Hasn't the PM said on numerous occasions that our AGW policies would mirror those taken by the US? But in the press Obama = good and Harper = bad, even if they have the exact same goals for CO2 reductions.


Why is it that Canada who responsible for only 2% of the worlds total CO2 emissions gets all sorts of grief when China, currently responsible for 22% of those emissions, gets treated with kid gloves? Even more interesting is that in the last few years China has increased its emissions by about 10% a year, or in more simple terms they have increased their yearly output a total equal to our total output. Yup Canada is the problem. More fossil awards please.


And lastly where were Ignatieff and the Liberals? We know that if Dion was still leader he would have went to Copenhagen, so why didn't Ignatieff go?


Oh I almost forgot, what about the science?



pt2, pt3, pt4

ht SDA

Michael Ignatieff: great moments in arrogance

Michael Ignatieff: “I don’t need to prove anything to anybody.”



Um, you do if you want to get elected* you arrogant jackass.







* not having ever won a nomination race in his life might explain his arrogance, but it does not excuse it.

Update: more from MI as he criticizes the government for focusing on jobs and not the deficit as he announces that the Liberals will focus on jobs and not the deficit. Got that?

David Suzuki: Compares Climate Change to Slavery!

He really has gone off the deep end:

SOLOMON: And by the way, they're saying because it is, by the way, because the oil sands creates jobs, creates money that is transferred to other provinces, and that's their notion of the balance.

SUZUKI: You know, that's what they used to say in the southern states. We can't give up slavery because it'll destroy our economy and slavery gives us jobs and we have to have slave runners and all of that. Some things you do because they're right. And you know, the problem is...

SOLOMON: But David, just for the record, and I know you're passionate, but is comparing this to slavery, is that fair, to demonize the other side like that?

SUZUKI: We're talking about the fate of all of humankind and the kind of future we're going to leave for our children. Yes, I think this is criminal what's going on now, to act as if the economy.

Read the entire interview here.

How many homes does this guy own again?

Ouch. The assassination photo really must have hit a nerve.

I have always maintained that you can tell the amount of damage done with any political story by the level and quality of spin used to counteract the story.

The assassination photo fiasco must have done the Liberals some serious hurt as all of the big guns were out trying to spin this one away, including someone we have not heard much from lately; Jason Cherniak, who offers up some old school spin with some attempted distraction away from the photo scandal by playing the antisemitic card.

Classic Cherniak! We miss you Jason, the current Liberal Crisis Firebrigade of Ted and Gayle just don't have that same over the top style.


Seriously, watching the Liberals spin away at this is extremely entertaining.


Mea culpa: The one aspect of politics that I find the most fascinating is spin. I love it; theirs, ours, it doesn't really matter where it comes from as I find all interesting. Too bad for them that not all spin is of the same calibre and on this one they are off target.

Send in the Lawyers!

Speaking as one of those "plucky Canucks" I join with my progressive friends* in the hope that the lawyers and the courts finally do get to the truth of it all.


Send in the lawyers!






*assuming that my progressive friends, who are more than willing to launch inquiries into the dealings of past Prime Ministers and 3 year old allegations of torture that were NOT committed by Canadians nor cost us billions of dollars, would be interested in the truth on AGW.

Ruby Tuesday Part 2

Tuesday December 15, 2009 otherwise known as Ruby Tuesday Part 2 for the Liberal Party of Canada. Only this time it was Jack Ruby and not Ruby Dhalla.

From the contest rules: "We’ll post every entry we receive in the coming days (as long as it’s not inappropriate)..."

The Picture that was deemed appropriate by someone within the Liberal Party of Canada and posted to the official website of the LPC.


Lucky Liberals get to choose the winner? (it is still unclear if the above was chosen by the Liberal web team as a finalist)


All was well until they were busted by the media.


As usual the blogosphere was ahead of them all.


The non apology. The photos here are created by visitors to our website, and do not always reflect the views of the Liberal Party of Canada. Though we continue to screen submissions before posting, we have removed certain images that may have been offensive to some viewers.

We apologize for any offence these images may have caused, and continue to strive to present a progressive and dynamic web experience for our site visitors.

Sincerely,
The Web Team



Warren speaks a truism: "Moral of the story? It's the reverse-Vegas principle: what happens online doesn't ever stay online. It seeps out, like water." ( he should know)

--------------------------

Is it over? Not yet and it will not be over until Michael Ignatieff grows a pair and shows some leadership by making an apology for the actions of HIS party to the Prime Minister. Attempting to change the channel will not work.




For fun: Have a listen to Steve Janke from Angry in the Great White North destroy Lib Blogger Jeff Jedras on Breakenridge yesterday. (Select Dec 15 @ 7PM. It starts right after the news.)

And because it is Christmas a free tip for those Liberals running around trying to compare the "bullet holes" going through Dion's Platform (done by his own party btw) with bullets going through the PM; give it up before you make an already bad situation much worse. Get your leader to apologize and be done with it.

Shut Up Elizabeth May!

Seriously Elizabeth, just shut the hell up, and tell David Miller to do the same.




A blast from the past: Watch as Elizabeth May calls Canadians stupid and then lies about it multiple times!



Another shorter Youtube video on the same quote.


Related from a few days ago: May having more difficulties with the facts.

Only 7 more days until winter starts.

Stay warm, and say Hi to Al Gore if you happen to see him somewhere between his private jet and Limo.

No Puffin = No Media Coverage.

Do you remember that cartoon puffin graphic on a CPC website from last year? You should because it was in all of the papers and other media.


Compare the media coverage and outrage of that single puffin to this, (Peter Donolo approved) found on the official party website of the always classy Liberal Party of Canada.


Ok defenders of the MSM in Canada; do you have any rational explanations for the differences in coverage?


Update: December 15, 2009. They Liberals sink even lower, if that is possible.

The Quebec Wing

The Quebec wing of the Liberal Party of Canada.


Follow the money.


I guess that is why Denis did not want the job. Being the Quebec Lieutenant doesn't pay what it used to.

That is mighty neighbourly of you Henry.

Henry Aubin writes today in the Montreal Gazette about how Quebec has decided to make big 'sacrifices' by reducing their GHG emissions by 20% from 1990 levels. WTG Quebec, that is mighty big of you, but wait....

Henry thinks that because Quebec has decided on its own to make these 'sacrifices' that everyone else, particularly Alberta, should also do the same because, well because Quebec did. That is like saying that because you have now chosen to stop eating meat that every one else must now do the same. Nice logic Henry but let me say on behalf of "greedy" Alberta, you know that province that sends money to Ottawa so it can be redirected to Quebec to lower your taxes and pay for all the stuff that you cannot afford, BITE ME!


One last thing on this quote: "To claim, as some skeptics do, that a few climate-change scientists' dishonesty invalidates the idea of human-caused global warming is as silly as to suggest that the Bernard Madoffs and Vincent Lacroixes of this world delegitimize capitalism." If he means that there were criminal acts and fraud committed than I guess the comparison may be valid, but somehow I don't think that is what Henry meant.

The Liberal Party. The Debbie Downers of Canadian Politics.

The Liberal Party of Canada is all negative all of the time and they have been that way since 2006 when they were tossed from power by the good people of Canada.

Pick an issue, any issue, and the Liberals are out in the press bad mouthing the governments handling of it. The last couple of weeks it was been torture, this week I suspect it will be the environment, and 3 weeks ago it was H1N1. They claim that Canadians abroad are embarrassed to be Canadian because we have a conservative government, the PM goes to China and gets many things accomplished and these same Liberals, who were screaming all about torture and human rights, are more willing to criticize the PM than they are the human rights record of China, and who can forget the Liberals new found concern for the traditions of the Catholic Church and the entirely made up FAKE wafergate fiasco. (BTW the LPC line is STILL that the PM did not eat the wafer)

It is not that the Liberals are just criticizing the government, they are fear mongering as well. Think H1N1 when Bob Rae stood up and said people are dying because of Canada's slow response, think back to last summer when Denis Coderre spoke about how people would die unless changes were made immediately to EI, and of course we also had Caroline Bennett with the body bags and using native children as political props for the Liberal cause.


While all the over the top fear mongering is laughable on its own, there is something else that reeks with this Liberal strategy. They are not just smearing the government with their negativity, they are also smearing thousands of other Canadians in the process.

Some recent examples:

H1N1, body bags and the smearing of thousands of health care professionals in every province who worked tirelessly in the planning and implementation of the vaccination process.

Olympic logos: By making the outrageous and totally false claims that the government has influenced the creation of our teams logo the Liberals have smeared all of the people who had a say in the design process. The COA, the Bay, and the athletes themselves who were involved with the decision all falsely being called conservative dupes in the hopes of increasing Liberal fortunes.

Torture: while they claim that they support the troops the Liberals end up smearing every Canadian who puts on a military uniform as well as the hundreds of government bureaucrats involved with our mission in Afghanistan. For those that do not quite get this I ask you to answer these questions. What is the ultimate goal of the Liberals in perusing this line and what are the desired results? How can seeing some of our men and women in uniform being hauled to trial for war crimes be considered supporting our troops?

The Olympic Torch: See 'Olympic logos' above and add on the hundreds of others involved with organizing the route to the smear total.

Stimulus money: 1000's of gov employees at all levels in every province and territory were involved with the decision making process and the Liberals smeared each and every one of them with their claims of mismanagement and favoritism.

There are plenty more examples but I think you get the idea.


The Liberal strategy is simple; if it is positive or good news they down play it or just ignore it, and if it is negative or bad news they run with it as far as they can and rarely if ever offer up suggestions as to how to improve things and they think nothing of running down the country or smearing countless ordinary Canadians who are just doing their jobs, if those efforts offer them some kind of perceived gain.


Maybe it is just me but this Debbie Downer attitude of fear mongering, running down the country, and smearing 1000's of Canadians may not be the very best way to get those dismal poll numbers up. But hey, feel free to keep up the negativity Liberals, it makes that 'positive' message that your leader talks about even more laughable and besides there are still a few people left in this country that you have not got around to smearing yet.

Keep up the good work, it looks good on you.

The PM stands by his principles on human rights.

PM Harper in a speech to Chinese business leaders: "Our government believes and has always believed that a mutually-beneficial economic relationship is not incompatible with a good and frank dialogue on fundamental values like freedom, human rights and the rule of law,"

Jack Layton shows that he hates Canada more than he is worried about human rights: "I think you always have to be careful when you live in a glass house when it comes to throwing stones," referring to the questions raised over whether Canada transferred prisoners to Afghan authorities where they were tortured.


Michael Ignatieff:"We've all had a wake up call in Canada about how important China is and Mr. Harper has taken a very long time to wake up," said Ignatieff, who apparently was not awake enough to go through with his own trip to China earlier this year as he was again busy backing down from his election threats.



related: check out the + and - ratings for the comments at CTV ( and any of the other media outlets). It looks like the Chinese are well versed in ways in which to attempt to influence public opinion.

Climategate whopper of the week.

There have been a lot of tall tales and whoppers from all sides of the Climategate story recently but this one stands out for myself as the whopper of the week.

Mark Hess, public affairs director for the Goddard Space Flight Center which runs the GISS laboratory: “We’re collecting the information and will respond with all the responsive relevant information to all of his requests,” Mr. Hess said. “It’s just a process you have to go through where you have to collect data that’s responsive.”

He said he was unfamiliar with the British controversy and couldn’t say whether NASA was susceptible to the same challenges to its data."

The public affairs director of NASA, whose job it is to keep up with the latest news stories and who probably has staff who search out this stuff, claims that he is not familiar with perhaps the biggest story related to climate science in years!

Ya right, who does he think he is, the CBC?

ht Springer.

and just because.

Disclose.tv Jon Stewart on Climate-Gate Video

Ignatieff agrees

Michael Ignatieff Agrees. He agrees with George W Bush on the Iraq war and 'enhanced interogation', and he agrees with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that 5 years was too long of a period between visits of a Canadian PM to China. Ignatieff agrees with just about everyone who is not Canadian it seems.

Speaking in Ottawa, Ignatieff said Harper’s public rebuke from the Chinese leadership “is going to cost Canadian jobs.”

“This is the most important relationship for the economic future of the country, the most important, and for four years this government put this relationship in the deep freeze,” Ignatieff said.

“Mr. Harper ... lost face today, and in that culture losing face is very important,” he said.

Way to stand up for your country Iggy, you continue to impress. (not)

Perhaps Ignatieff is upset that the PM did not take the time out of his busy schedule to visit everyone's favorite Liberal and fugitive from justice, Maurice Strong, while he was there.

Some facts: Canada was granted approved destination status, something the Liberals were unable to get under 12 years of rule, and many visits.

In 2007, two-way trade between the two countries was up 13 per cent. In 2008, two-way trade was up 11 per cent. In the first six months of this year, two-way trade is up by about 3 per cent -- despite a recession.

Also on this trip a deal has been struck to sell Canadian agricultural products to the Chinese market and a new Chinese consulate will be built in Montreal in the future.

Well Mr. Ignatieff, I guess it is better for the PM to 'lose face', stick to his views on human rights, and get results like these, then it is to be 2 faced like a certain leader of the opposition that I know.

How far has technology advanced in the last year?

Well considering that this was made December 3, 2008, just 1 year ago today.



I would say that technology has indeed come a long way.





It might just be the snow on the ground or that the Christmas season is coming upon us but I sure have been feeling quite nostalgic this week and I can't put my finger on it as to why. Oh well, I am sure it will come to me

Heather Mallick, proud to hate Canada.

Heather Mallick is at it again; this time she is telling us and that we should all be embarrassed to be Canadians. From the UK Guardian

Some excerpts:

Out of something as misty as mere indecision, Canadian voters have turned their country into a political freak show. Canada's Conservative government, run by an ideologue named Stephen Harper, does not represent Canadian voters on saving the air we breathe and temperatures we can cope with.

Yes, Canada's record on carbon emissions is disgraceful, shameful, loathsome etc. The tar sands of northern Alberta are an international scandal. But the problem is not in a former Prius of a country turning into a Hummer. Canada's dilemma is much more interesting that that. It is the decline of a democracy (partly as its media died, thank you Conrad Black) and the descent of a nation into a political stasis. ( AA Note: if you are too stupid not to know the difference between tar and oil you invalidate your opinions on the dumb factor alone)


First, no one disagrees more with Harper's refusal to slow climate change than Canadian voters. Indeed, more than three-quarters of Canadians say they are embarrassed that Canada hasn't taken an international lead on the issue, a recent poll revealed.

We hate green garbage incompetents. We love the Kyoto protocol, we want to prostrate ourselves in Copenhagen next month, but until we make our mind up about whether to make Michael Ignatieff prime minister, we can't.

May I humbly beg for patience with my country, which is stuck like a beaver in a dam of its own making.

American travellers used to shove a Canadian flag on their backpack for better treatment overseas. I'm sorry that the reverse has happened and Canadians now switch the conversation to Obama as quickly as possibly before the subject of clubbing seals arises.

We have shamed our better natures. But we Canadians will rid ourselves of Harper and rise again to be the decent and intelligent nation you Brits once patronised with such delight.

--------------

You know I do sort of agree with Heather. It is embarrassing to be a Canadian sometimes, particularly when Heather is out there representing us to the world.

Heather if you are ashamed of your country I feel sorry for you but that is your choice, but please do not go around and attempt to speak for the millions of others of us who are very proud of this great country of ours. You are truly an embarrassment to all of us.

A blast from the recent past: More slime from Heather can be found here. Note that this article was considered so far over the top that her bosses at the CBC deleted it from the web and issued an apology.

"On the whole, the CBC News policy handbook takes a very anxious view of any mixing of opinion in with the news business. It sees the two as nitro and glycerin, innocuous on their own but explosive together. This is a very healthy restraint for a public broadcaster.

But every news organization needs to have an opinion dimension. Access to different viewpoints helps readers, listeners and viewers make reasoned choices, especially during an election campaign.

As a public broadcaster we have an added responsibility to provide an array of opinions and voices to complement our journalism. But we must do so carefully. And you should be able to trust us to provide you with work that’s based on solid reporting and free from the passionate excesses of partisanship.

We failed you in this case. And as a result we have put new editing procedures in place to ensure that in the future, work that is not appropriate for our platforms, will not appear. We are open to contentious reasoned argument but not to partisan attack. It’s a fine line."

Charles Adler replies to Heather. Courtesy of Christian Conservative.

From the comments: You go Girl. http://www.cic.gc.ca/ENGLISH/information/applications/renounce.asp

December 01, 2008. Happy Anniversary you Coalition fans.

It was exactly 1 year ago, December 1st 2008 when perhaps the most divisive move in the history of Canadian politics took place as Stephane Dion, Gilles Duceppe, and Jack Layton signed the coalition agreements.

A coalition that if it would have come to take the reigns of power in Canada would have caused a "permanent division"* in Canadian society.




*Michael Ignatieff June 30, 2009.

Has there been anything that Ignatieff has not changed his position on?