Stay Classy Heather Mallick.

Reprinted in all of its taxpayer funded, anti American, Liberal, hate filled, CBC goodness.

Source

I assume John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential partner in a fit of pique because the Republican money men refused to let him have the stuffed male shirt he really wanted. She added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote, the demographic that sullies America's name inside and outside its borders yet has such a curious appeal for the right.

So why do it?

It's possible that Republican men, sexual inadequates that they are, really believe that women will vote for a woman just because she's a woman. They're unfamiliar with our true natures. Do they think vaginas call out to each other in the jungle night? I mean, I know men have their secret meetings at which they pledge to do manly things, like being irresponsible with their semen and postponing household repairs with glue and used matches. Guys will be guys, obviously.

But do they not know that women have been trained to resent other women and that they only learn to suppress this by constantly berating themselves and reading columns like this one? I'm a feminist who understands that women can nurse terrible and delicate woman hatred.

Palin was not a sure choice, not even for the stolidly Republican ladies branch of Citizens for a Tackier America. No, she isn't even female really. She's a type, and she comes in male form too.

John Doyle, the cleverest critic in Canada, comes right out and calls Palin an Alaska hillbilly. Damn his eyes, I wish I'd had the wit to come up with it first. It's safer than "white trash" but I'll pluck safety out of the nettle danger. Or something.

Doyle's job includes watching a lot of reality television and he's well-versed in the backstory. White trash — not trailer trash, that's something different — is rural, loud, proudly unlettered (like Bush himself), suspicious of the urban, frankly disbelieving of the foreign, and a fan of the American cliché of authenticity. The semiotics are pure Palin: a sturdy body, clothes that are clinging yet boxy and a voice that could peel the plastic seal off your new microwave.

'Turn your guns on Levi, ma'am'

Palin has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade's woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression. Bristol has what is known in Britain as the look of the teen mum, the "pramface." Husband Todd looks like a roughneck; Track, heading off to Iraq, appears terrified. They claim to be family obsessed while being studiously terrible at parenting. What normal father would want Levi "I'm a fuckin' redneck" Johnson prodding his daughter?

I know that I have an attachment to children that verges on the irrational, but why don't the Palins? I'm not the one preaching homespun values but I'd destroy that ratboy before I'd let him get within scenting range of my daughter again, and so would you. Palin's e-mails about the brother-in-law she tried to get fired as a state trooper are fizzing with rage and revenge. Turn your guns on Levi, ma'am.

Palin has it all, along with being vicious and profoundly dishonest. Just hours after her first convention speech, the Associated Press did a good fast listing of her untruths and I won't dwell on them.

I did promise to watch the entire convention so you wouldn't have to, but I discovered a neat trick. I switched between the convention and the 2003 folk music mockumentary A Mighty Wind on Bravo.

They were indistinguishable. Click on a nervous wreck with deeply strange hair doing a monologue on society today and where it all went wrong. Are you watching Christian belter Aaron Tippin singing Where the Stars and Stripes and Eagle Fly in the Xcel Centre in St. Paul or the actors from Spinal Tap remixing the 1966 version of Potato's in the Paddy Wagon?

Who delivered this line: "To do then now would be retro. To do then then was very now-tro, if you will." Was it Rev. James Dobson of Focus on the Family talking about Bristol Palin's shotgun wedding or was it a flashback to the Kingston Trio?

The conventioneers are nothing like the rich men who run the party, and that's the mystery of the hick vote. They'd be much better served by the Democrats. I know Thomas Frank answered this in What's the Matter with Kansas?; I know that red states vote Republican on social issues to give themselves the only self-esteem available to their broken, economically abused existence.

Lie works for Palin

But surely they know Barack Obama is not planning to finish off the ordinary hillbilly when he adjusts tax rates. He's going to raise taxes on the top 2% of Americans and that doesn't include anyone at the convention beyond the Bushes and McCains and random party management. So why cheer Palin when she claims otherwise?

Is it racism? I'm told that it is, although I find racism so appalling that I have difficulty identifying it. It is more likely the dearly held Republican notion that any American can become violently rich, as rich as those hedge funders in Greenwich, Conn., who buy $40-million mansions unseen and have their topiary shaped in the form of musical notes.

When Palin and Rudy Giuliani sneered at Obama's years of "community organizing" — they said it like "rectal fissure" — the audience ewww-ed with them. Republicans dream of a personal future that involves only household staff, not equals who need to be persuaded to vote.

So I'm trying to imagine the pain of realizing, as they all must at some point, that it is not going to happen for them. It's the green light at the end of the dock. It's the ship that never comes in, gals, as Palin would put it. But she won't because the lie works for her. It helps her scramble, without compassion, above all those other tense no-hoper ladies in the audience.

American politics isn't short of smart women. Susan Eisenhower, Ike's granddaughter, who just endorsed Obama, made an extraordinary speech at the Democratic convention (and a terrific casual appearance on The Colbert Report as Palin was speaking). The Republican party has already consumed nearly all of its moderate "seed corn," she said aptly. Time to start again.

Eisenhower, a scholar and journalist, has a point. Or am I only saying that because she's part of the thoughtful demographic that I'm trying to reach here? Think, Heather, think like a Republican! The Skeptics, shall I call them, are my base, and I'll pander to them as ardently as the Republican patriarchs tease their white female marginals.

This Week

Mad Men is scaring me (AMC on Sunday nights). What has Matthew Weiner, a writer from The Sopranos, created, a period soap opera about reality and façade or a horror series on a localized war between men and women? Was Episode 6 of Season 2 a costume drama about the Madonna/whore complex or the operatic rendition of one simple thing, human cruelty?

Or maybe I'm seeing too much into it and it's just a sexed-up version of the Republican convention.

Wow!.



ht SDA.


The aftermath: CBC Ombudsman Report.

We are not having financial problems.

Stephane Dion and the Liberal Party of Canada: We are not having financial problems.

And except for Mr. Dion’s modest rally on Sunday, this tour has been a trio of buses roaming around Ottawa and Montreal looking for something to do while (conflict of interest declaration here) charging reporters $2,100 a day plus hotels for the tagalong privilege.

Dion and the Liberals are charging $2100 a day to reporters.

Bahahahahaha!

Tracking the Lie: The CPC has cut funding for womens programs.

I need your help. (Please see this previous post) I am going to attempt to track one of the biggest lies that the Conservatives have faced from almost the beginning of their time in government.

The Lie: The Conservative Government has cut funding to Women's programs. i.e. The Status of Women.

The Truth: News release: The budget of the Women's Program has been increased by 42 percent, bringing it to its highest level ever of $15.3 million.

If you see/hear this lie being used please drop a link into the comments and I will update this post as necessary.


It is much harder to spread lies like this if those spreading the lies know they are being watched and know they will be called out on their smears.

_________

Sept 07, 2008 less than 2 hours after the writ is dropped the Canadian Press spreads lies:"The autumn of their first year in power, the Conservatives galvanized one angry constituency with $2 billion in spending cuts that targeted such things as the court challenges program, adult literacy and women's programs - while posting a $13 billion surplus for 2005-2006" * * (26 Google hits for this story)

Sept 08, 2008: Liberal MP Diane Marleau in the Sudbury Star. "I've been travelling this summer as chair of the Women's Caucus. It's evident a lot of damage has been done ... They say they're not cutting the money, but they're not giving it out. Most groups have been weakened and they're the groups that are the most vulnerable." and just for fun another quote from Marleau: "I fear if Harper comes back we won't have much of a country left. We happen to believe government is a force of good in our society."

Sept 10, 2008:" Mr. Dion said the Conservative government of Stephen Harper has turned the clock back on gender equality and women’s representation. He eliminated the national child care agreements, cancelled the Court Challenges program, removed the word ‘equality’ from the mandate of Status of Women Canada and cut funding which forced 12 of 16 regional Status of Women Canada offices to close."

The court challenges program was just for women? Who would have known; I thought it was for serious wrongs such as complaints about having to pay for your own nanny.

Antonia Zerbisias Toronto Star: Read the entire article. She hits all of the scary points."The Harper government also jerked around Status of Women Canada. First it slashed its budget by nearly 40 per cent and stripped "equality" from its mandate. Later, when it restored funding, it had essentially robbed women of important legal mechanisms to fight for equal rights and equal pay."

It wasn't just restored, it was increased by 42% and the entire process cleaned up so more women's organizations could be included in the process rather than just your far left friends who think it is just fine to attack Sara Pallin because she is a women. You are not a feminist AZ, your just another lefty who thinks you know how everyone should think and live their lives.

.

Game on!

The writ has been dropped.


I will be calling for my lawn sign later today.

Repository of Liberal Lies and Smear.

I need your help.

Repository of Liberal Lies and Smear: Election 2008, Status of Women Addition.

I will be starting a post that will deal with and track 1 big lie that I expect to be hearing from Liberals and their rapid supporters across the country, over the course of the election campaign.

The lie: The Conservative Government has cut funding to the Status of Women.

I will be asking, in an upcoming post once the writ is dropped so please not here, that anyone who notes the use of this lie in this current election campaign by a Liberal MP, candidate, blogger etc, to please let me know and drop a link in the comments of that post.

A pre writ example: "Thibault countered that neither Ambrose nor LeBreton are credible defenders of women's rights given that they sat in cabinet when the Conservative government cut funding for the status of women program."

Why am I doing this? Read on.

I started out tonight writing a post tentatively titled "Stephen Harper is a monster". The basic idea was to point out how the Liberals attempt demonize their opponents in elections as have in the past, are currently trying to do, and will definitely do in the up coming campaign, but while I was typing away I ran into a few problems.

The first was that I had too many examples of this being SOP for the Liberals, the second was that because of all the examples that I found out there I had way too many links to find and include, and the third was that there was way to many various smears and lies to deal with in a book never mind a single blog post. This makes for a very messy post and a realization that I need some big time help trying to keep track of all the lies and smears that we can all expect to see over the next few weeks.

So in an effort to keep it simple I decided that I would track just one big lie, about funding cuts to the Status of Women, and ask others bloggers out there to do the same for any one of the many other examples of Liberal lies and smear out there; such as the ever popular Bush= Harper smear, cuts to the arts or other programs, tax cuts, Afghanistan, same sex marriage, federal debt reduction, abortion, immigration, softwood lumber, foreign aid, human rights,hidden agenda, etc. I am sure you can easily come up with one of your own as there are many examples.

So if you are interested in the idea please feel free to pick a smear or lie and document just how many times you (or your blog readers) find the Liberals using it over the campaign. It will take some work, but there might be a payoff for the effort.

Over the years I have noticed that it is not that easy for someone to lie when they are being watched and exposed on those lies, and with a little luck this effort will make just a bit harder for the Liberals to pull the Campaign of Fear™ out of their playbook this time around.

Comments and ideas welcome.

Bill Casey Honourary Green and other GP News

Green Party leader Elizabeth May announced that her party considers Independent Member of Parliament Bill Casey "an honourary Green". The Green Party of Canada and its Electoral District Association in Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley will not be opposing the re-election of Mr Casey.

I think Elizabeth May might be angling for the 'real' first Green MP. I wonder if she can convince her good buddy Stephane Dion to not run a Liberal in the riding.

UD: from the comments "So in conclusion, Ms. Environment suppports Casey as an honorary Green party member for supporting an Atlantic Accord which would have supported more offshore oil development. So Ms. May stands now with the Republicans in supporting more offshore oil development. A proud moment for the Green Party of Canada.'


In other GP news: John Shavluk, the Green Party candidate who threatened to sue the blog Dust my Broom for exposing an anti Semitic posting, has been told that he can not run as a candidate for the GP in the upcoming election.

"The Green Party has announced that John Shavluk will not be the candidate for the party in Newton—North Delta, following revelations that he made comments in 2006 on an online discussion forum that are anti-Semitic."

I guess now he will have all the extra time he needs to get to the bottom of what really happened on Sept 11, 2001.

How long?

IF the election campaign does start in the next few days how long do you think it will take before we hear Liberals saying the following:

A vote for the NDP is a vote for the conservatives.

And my personal favorite, which pretty much means that the Liberals will have already given up on winning the election: We must fight to ensure that Stephen Harper does not get a majority.

I expect we will hear both statements in one form or another in the up coming 40 or so days, but when?

Dion's campaign of hope starts.

"We need to win against the most right-wing prime minister in the history of our country," Mr. Dion thundered. "Stephen Harper wants to give George W. Bush a third term in Ottawa."

"Stephen Harper is more pro-Brush(sic) than John McCain."

source.


I don't want to split hairs but is PM Harper more"Pro-Brush" or is he anti-comb Stephane?


Keep the hope coming Mr. Highroad and remember what you said just a few days ago.

Dion added the Liberals will work to win the hearts and minds of Canadians in appealing to their noble sentiments and to their positive will to do the right thing. He said the Liberals won't resort to "the negative, nasty approach of the Conservative party and their current leader."

A Headline that tells the truth.

This might have been better after the election rather than before but...

Tories 'destroyed' us: Dion

Liberals inadvertently reveal more lies about the Green Shift

By now I am sure you have all read the latest news that Dion is going to try to modify his carbon tax proposal after his much ballyhooed summer tour trying to sell this bad piece of policy to Canadians failed miserably. While the story about how the Liberal sales job of the Green Shift has been a complete failure is damning enough in itself; hidden away in the latest Liberal rhetoric is something even more damning as it reveals just how Dion and the Liberals have been lying about the carbon tax from day 1.

Here is what Dion is now proposing: Dion will announce that part of the $1 billion contingency fund in his plan, designed for tax relief to address the unavoidable costs associated with the carbon tax, will be set aside for truckers, farmers and fishermen. "There's $1-billion wiggle room," said Montreal MP Marlene Jennings. "We've never said that the plan, in terms of the spending side, is complete, because it's not. There is money that we're setting aside in order to be able to assist sectors that are going to be particularly hard-hit."

A 1 billion dollar contingency fund?

Now how exactly can a plan "that every dollar that is raised from carbon pollution will be returned to Canadians in tax" cuts." and a plan where "This shift will be done in a revenue neutral way –putting it in law that every dollar that is raised from carbon pollution will be returned to Canadians in tax cuts." possibly have a contingency fund if every penny collected will be going back to Canadian taxpayers?

It absolutely cannot be done, that is unless of course someone has been lying to Canadians since day 1.

A couple of other pertinent questions:

Just how did Dion and the Liberals plan to slip a billion dollar fund made up of money that was promised to go back to the taxpayer past the Auditor General, who the Liberal have promised would oversee the revenue neutrality of the carbon tax?

If the Green Shift was going over well with Canadians at this time, does anyone honestly believe that the money would go back to the taxpayers?

And perhaps the most important question of all: What did the Liberals really plan to do with this fund?

Update: Buried in Dion's carbon tax is a note on the creation of a special fund. "Contingency offset. We will set aside $1 billion over four years ($100 million in the first year growing to $400 million in the fourth year) which will be reserved for tax cuts designed to off-set the impact of the carbon tax on groups such as not-for-profit organizations and charities. This contingency offset will also be used to design tax relief to address unanticipated and unavoidable costs associated with the new price on carbon for the most vulnerable in society."

So are farmers and fisherman non profit organizations, charities, or part of the most vulnerable of our society? I am sure they would like to know and eagerly await an answer from Dion.

By the way, when did a subsidy become a tax cut?


ht Steve Jenke and the comments at Unambiguous.

18 Month later: Regent’s Park Mosque in London.

18 months after Channel 4’s Dispatches exposed the hate going on in some mosques in England; they went back to see if anything has changed. Here is what they found:


A WOMAN preacher has been secretly filmed spreading a hate-filled message of MURDER in Britain’s most influential mosque.

Read more here , here and here.



Does anyone think this will not be happening again 18 months from now?

Farewell Jim Stephenson, we hardly knew you.

Now you see him.


Now you don't.





The Green Party of Canada. Doing politics differently.



ht ALW

Location, Location, Location.

IMHO, you could not get a better location than this ad found on the CTV.ca website.




and for your viewing pleasure the latest CPC ad

Ladies and Gentlemen; the 'Party of the Charter' in action.

Currently the Liberal Party of Canada is in court trying to take away the rights of a Canadian citizen to due process before that court.

The Liberal party filed the opinion by a political scientist as part of its defence in the defamation suit Mr. Harper launched against the party over the Chuck Cadman affair. "This claim by Prime Minister Harper is an attempt by the governing party to silence the Official Loyal Opposition on a matter of significant public interest pertaining to the government of Canada," the Liberal party says in the statement of defence filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

The opinion by University of Toronto professor Peter Russell states that the suit intends to "choke off parliamentary and public discussion of the issue." which the Liberal maintain is designed to muzzle legitimate criticism about his role in the Cadman affair.

The reality is that this lawsuit limits nothing. The Liberals can continue to say what ever they want as long as what they say is the truth, but if it is not the truth they have to face the legal consequences just like anyone else would.

If you slander or libel me, I can sue your ass off; that is my remedy available under Canadian law and just because the Prime Minister is the Prime Minister is no reason for Stephen Harper, the Canadian citizen, not to have the same legal and constitutional right as anyone else.


A Funny argument coming from the so-called "Party of the Charter".


ht Right As Rain.

Ha Ha!!

Ha Ha!!*

Stephane Dion: "We're ready. We're well-organized and we're determined to win this election,"

Only one week before they expect to be plunged into a federal election campaign, some Liberal MPs are still hoping to make "adjustments" to the centrepiece of their party's platform -- the risky proposal to impose a carbon tax. (The Green Shift**)

Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter said on the carbon tax, "We need to boil that down, we need to figure what changes have to be made to accommodate the concerns that are raised." "And there are concerns. We don't deny that."

Robert Thibault, a Nova Scotia Liberal MP said: "In my mind, it's a statement of principles, it's not a recipe."

More evidence backing up Dions "ready" claim from the article:

Some Liberal insiders complain that continued infighting among factions in Quebec has turned that province into "a disaster zone" -- as one well-connected Grit called it -- for the party.

Some veteran Liberals disagree, especially when it comes to Quebec where some Liberals remain furious with Dion's Quebec lieutenant, Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette. They blame her for failing to find candidates for half the ridings in the province while blocking potentially strong candidates, such as former MPs Liza Frulla and Helene Scherre.



Yup. They are ready.




*Apologies to Nelson.
**Apologies to Jennifer Wright.

In my opinion...

In my opinion the first line of this Canadian Press news story is opinion.

OTTAWA — It will probably be a very short meeting.

NDP Leader Jack Layton has agreed to sit down with Stephen Harper on Saturday, but said he believes the prime minister has already decided to throw in the towel and call a fall election....

------

But whose opinion is it?

I really have no idea why the CP didn't think it important enough to include the authors name along with the authors opinion, but I am not a journalist and I am unfamiliar with their ways.

Mayor Stephen Mandel: I for one welcome our new alien overlords.

Global Edmonton News Hour August 27, 2008: In story about Mayor Mandel lining up to the Provincial Government money trough after the recent announcement of a large provincial budget surplus.

This sounds about right for our fiscally challenged mayor to be looking for more izzy money, but while watching the interview I noticed something very strange taking place behind Mayor Mandel, and it has me a bit worried.





Your eyes do not deceive you; that is a Klingon with purpose unknown mingling with some city councilors. All while the mayor distracts the media from the real story. Damn you MSM!

No matter the result of this strange alien encounter at city hall; I think that this city council will find a way to increase my taxes because of it. But don't blame me; I voted for Kodos!

Dion; now hiding from his own telephone.

Stephane Dion; now hiding from his own telephone.

"It's a matter of my responsibility as prime minister to make a decision on whether I think the fall session of Parliament can be productive . . . Certainly, spending weeks and weeks playing telephone tag with guys (to set up the meetings with opposition leaders) doesn't help me confirm that things are going to be very productive." Source.

Another Liberal opens his mouth, and another smear comes out.

Scott Brison, Nova Scotia Liberal MP for Kings ­Hants must have figured that Mark Holland and the Liberal Party proper were having too much fun defending themselves in court over libel/defamation cases that he decided that he wanted to play along as well.

Last Thursday Brison made the following comments about Premier Rodney MacDonald’s opposition to the federal Liberals’ green plan: source

Premier MacDonald’s opposition to green plan has been “fully bought and paid for," and in a letter to to the premier Thursday Brison accused him of be­coming “a full branch-plant op­eration of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Ottawa office."


More Brison comments from Thursday: "Rodney MacDonald is more interested in being Stephen Harper's lap dog in Nova Scotia than he is in defending the interests of Nova Scotians," "He's only trying to feather his own nest after the next election when he loses and needs a patronage appointment from Stephen Harper."

Bought and paid for? Nice choice of words there Scotty, know any good lawyers? Better get on that Blackberry.

Sneak Preview of the Closing Ceremonies in Beijing.

As luck would have it; I have obtained an advance copy of the program for the closing ceremonies of the Olympic games in Beijing.

Here it is.


Official release from the Politburo of Things for the National Interest and Truth.

Once the last event (Handball) comes to a conclusion and the last medals are awarded we will go directly to the following schedule.

Schedule:

The closing ceremonies: Beijing National Stadium (Birds Nest) 8 PM China Standard time

Art Director: Green helmet guy


The grand parade of all things that makes us better than you.

Musical number #1: Ashley Simpson

The Athletes enter the stadium: The flag bearers of the participating delegations and the name-board-bearers enter the stadium in single file. Behind them march the athletes, without distinction of nationality. The flag bearers then form a semi-circle behind the rostrum.

The President of the IOC and the President of the OCOG mount the rostrum. To the sounds of the Greek national anthem, the Greek flag is hoisted on the flagpole that stands to the right of the central flagpole used for the winners' flags. The flag of the host country is then hoisted on the central flagpole, while its anthem is played. Finally, the flag of the host country of the next Olympic Games is hoisted on the left hand flagpole to the strains of its anthem.

The mayor of the host city(Guo Jinlong) joins the President of the IOC on the rostrum and returns to him the Olympic flag. The president of the IOC then entrusts it to the mayor of the host city of the following Olympic Games (Mayor of London, Boris Johnson). This flag must be displayed in the latter city's main municipal building.

After the address of the President of the OCOG, the President of the IOC gives the closing speech which ends with the following words:"I declare the Games of the XXIX Olympiad closed and, in accordance with tradition, I call upon the youth of the world to assemble four years from now at London to celebrate with us there the Games of the XXX Olympiad"

A fanfare then sounds; the Olympic flame is extinguished, and while the Olympic anthem is being played, the Olympic flag is slowly lowered from the flagpole and, unfurled horizontally, carried out of the arena, followed by the flag bearers. A farewell song resounds.

The farewell song: Musical number #2 to be performed by very special guests*



The athletes file out of the stadium and we immediately fire up the power plants and resume production of counterfeit products to sell to them when they return home.

Program end.




* The Politburo is well aware that this would normally be impossible, but for the greater cultural good it will be made to happen as scheduled.

The anonymous 'ctv.ca news staff' strikes again.

This is just too stupid not to comment on. "After a week of election speculation, senior federal Conservatives have told CTV News that an election call after Labour Day is "possible."

"Possible"? I know I did not go to a fancy school of journalism but come on, this is just ridiculous.

It is not only possible that the election call will come after Labour Day but it is a 100% sure thing. My guess is that around October of 2009 would be a good bet for the election, but I am not a journalist.

Way to go CTV news staff, but I do have a question. If this story wins some kind of award for outstanding journalism, who will be the one to pick up the prize?

ht/MichealCC

McGuinty's Green Ontario

McGuinty's Green Ontario, where they do things greener and better than anyone else and where car pooling is illegal.

The province's Public Vehicles Act states, "No person shall arrange or offer to arrange transportation of passengers by means of a public vehicle operated by another person unless that other person is the holder of an operating licence authorizing that other person to perform the transportation."

Ontario, yours to discover. Just take your own car to do it.

It's back with a vengeance.

This past Wednesday Stephane Dion was in Oakville and gave us a hint about the Liberal election strategy when he said the following "The next election will be about policies, but it will also be about politics." "It will be the battle between fear and hope," Thats right folks; The Campaign of Fear™ is about to make a big comeback (Not that they have ever really stopped since the 2006 campaign), and the Liberals again hope that the voters will buy into their fear campaign.

It has already begun with Dion attempting to open up the very divisive abortion debate, and while this level of fear mongering might be expected from the Liberals based on their campaigning history; the Liberal leader sunk well into the gutter and reached an all time low when he said this: "These are the same people – Mr. Flaherty, Mr. Baird, Mr. Clement – who are responsible [for] what happened in Walkerton, who privatized [Ontario's] propane inspection, and they want to do something equivalent about food inspections,"

Yes, you read that right. Dion is attempting to lay the blame for the Walkerton tragedy and the recent propane explosion in Toronto, along with the tragic deaths associated with both events, on to the Harper Government! So much for taking the high road Stephane you ass.

Truly pathetic. That may be the lowest thing I have ever heard in Canadian politics and I am at a loss for words for the level of disgust that I feel right now for Stephane Dion. What ever level of respect I had for the man is now permanently gone, and if he figured that somehow this crap was going to rally his base for support, he is even dumber than I ever imagined possible.


Bring it on Dion; you have rallied the wrong side.

A picture says a 1000 words

But what are the words this one is trying to say?


Blogging will be light due to a busy schedule and great weather!

CTV.ca : Changing Headlines

I happened to read about a new poll that was released yesterday and did a little Google search trying to find a full story on it. This is what I found.


"Trouble ahead for Harper's Tories, poll suggests" That doesn't sound so good does it? But clicking in the link this is what I find at CTV.

"Tories preferred on leadership and major issues: Poll" A totally changed headline to a story about the exact same poll. Only this one seems to be indicating the complete opposite from the first one, and after reading the story I have to wonder just how the first headline ever made it's way onto the CTV .ca website in the first place.

Here is the story. Please read it for yourself, and see if you can figure out how anyone could conclude that there is trouble ahead for Harper's Tories.

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- A new poll suggests Canadians prefer Conservatives over Liberals when it comes to leadership and most major issues -- even though that preference has not translated into popular support for the governing party.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey suggests 43 per cent of Canadians think the Tories, with Stephen Harper at the helm, have the best leader to be prime minister.

Only 22 per cent of those polled picked the Liberals, led by Stephane Dion.

Moreover, the Tories came out well ahead of the Liberals when respondents were asked which party is best equipped to deal with the economy (40 per cent to 22 per cent), taxes (41 per cent to 20 per cent) and crime (39 per cent to 18 per cent).

They also enjoyed a smaller two- to three-point advantage over the Liberals on foreign affairs, energy and health care.

When asked generally which party cares most about the issues closest to respondents' hearts, respondents favoured the Tories 35 per cent to 32.

The survey respondents preferred the Liberals over the Tories on only two issues: the environment (36 per cent to 24) and poverty (32 per cent to 25).

That appears to reflect Dion's summer-long campaign to promote his so-called Green Shift -- a complicated climate-change plan that would impose a carbon tax on fossil fuels, offset by income- and business-tax cuts and tax benefits to the poor, elderly and rural dwellers. The plan includes measures aimed at halving the number of Canadians living in poverty.

Dion has said the green shift will be the centrepiece of the Liberals' platform for the next election campaign. But the poll results suggest he may be in danger of being seen as a one-trick pony.

"I believe that is a definite risk for Dion right now," said a Harris-Decima senior vice-president, Jeff Walker.

Although Liberals tout The Green Shift as an economic plan, as well as a plan for tackling climate change, Walker said it appears to be seen primarily as an environmental initiative thus far and that's "too narrow a definition."

"Especially in this (weakening) economy, people need to know and hear that there's some plan for the economy."

Despite the Conservatives' advantage on the economy and other issues of importance to voters, the most recent Harris-Decima survey suggests the Tories remain mired in a virtual tie with the Liberals, with 32 per cent and 33 per cent support respectively.

Walker said the Tories appear to be held back by their inability to gain support in urban and suburban Ontario and Quebec, where the Liberals seem to be the "default choice" for voters. But that could change during the course of an election campaign, which could come as early as this fall.

Leadership becomes critically important during a campaign and Harper, having led his party through two elections, is far more experienced than Dion, who is preparing for his first campaign as leader.

Moreover, Walker said the preference Canadians are showing for Conservatives on most issues is really a reflection of the greater trust they have in Harper as a leader.

"Right now Conservatives are very solid in a whole bunch of areas and that's almost a surrogate for leadership. That's why it really will come down to the campaign," he said.

The poll suggests only 14 per cent of Canadians think it's time for an election. Thirty-eight per cent think an election this fall would be "a waste of time" but a plurality -- 41 per cent -- said they can live with the prospect.

The telephone phone poll of just more than 1,000 Canadians was conducted Aug. 7-10 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points 19 times in 20.


For your added enjoyment; watch this clip titled http://watch.ctv.ca/news/latest/trouble-ahead/#clip83578 for Craig Oliver's take on this latest poll and whether or not he thinks there is trouble ahead for the Tories.




.

Trust me. I am an economist.

John McCallum, Liberal MP and LPC finance critic, was in Guelph on Tuesday trying to sell Dion's green shift to the local voters for the upcoming by-election, but like many other Liberal MP's of late, his explanation left more questions than answers.

After reading off the usual prepared party lines; "The essence of the Green Shift is that you have higher taxes on what you burn and lower taxes on what you earn," he said. "So that you tax higher things that are bad, like pollution, and you tax lower things like your income." (is anyone else out there getting tired of hearing these same words from every Liberal who opens up their mouth about Dion's carbon tax?) McCallum goes off script adding ""the vast majority" of Canadians will find the tax breaks included in the plan will outweigh the extra costs incurred by higher energy prices." Vast majority? Just what percentage of Canadians will make up that vast majority, how has he calculated this, and more importantly who will not be included in that "vast majority"?

52%, 60%? Higher? Come on big John, give us a real number. ( hint to the press: please start to ask these types of questions. It is your damn job.) Your guess on the numbers will be as good as McCallum's because nobody really knows for sure what the actual costs will turn out to be after the carbon tax inevitably gets passed down on to the consumer. Prices are going to raise on most everything, and unless you know just how much, you cannot make wild claims about how far these tax breaks are going to go. As for those left out of that "vast majority", no matter what the number turns out to be, logic says that they are the ones who are going to be least able to afford it such as the elderly, students, low wage earners, and all of those on fixed incomes. The plan is going to punish the poor.

McCallum, not to be out done by the many other Liberal MP's who have contradicted Dion on his green shift, had the following to say: "the Conservative anti-carbon tax campaign is promoting "two myths" about the Green Shift -- first that it won't be revenue neutral, and the myth that the Green Shift will raise the price of gas at the pump." Directly contradicting Dion who has already grudgingly admitted that the price at the pumps is going to raise: "We know that they will pass on part of their costs to their consumers because they cannot eliminate the emissions overnight, with all the goodwill of the world. We know that."

So why should anybody trust what McCallum has to say over his leader? Well, in response to comments made by the Executive Director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association, Peter A. Nelson, about the cost of lettuce going up to $8 a head, McCallum said "That's just crazy, totally out to lunch. And I'm an economist, so I know a little bit what I'm talking about. It doesn't make any sense."

Did the economist tell us just how much he thought the price of lettuce would go up, how much the rate of inflation would raise, or give us ANY real numbers at all about anything?

Well no, but not to worry because he is an economist after all; an economist who knows a "little bit" about what he is talking about.

Source story.

Maybe she should call the cops.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May, in Guelph for the local by-election, has accused the Liberals of "stealing".

'May cited the Liberal party's Green Shift as the foremost example of another party "stealing" a Green party idea and making it their own.'

Oh my, the Liberals "stealing". Who would have thought such a thing even possible?

I think May should do the right thing and report the matter to the police, and while she is at it, she could also report the theft of the Liberal candidate for the EDA of Central Nova. I am sure the local Liberals in Central Nova are very concerned that someone stole their chance to select and vote for a candidate of their own.

Speaking about things that should be against the law; it seems that the Liberal Party of Canada is still soliciting money in their efforts to "win back" Central Nova even though they have no intentions of running a candidate and cannot possibly "win back" the riding.

Hedy Fry "Clarifies" the green shift and announces that green shift will tax gasoline.

(updated with video and a link to the transcript of the interview with an additional audio source.)

It is no great surprise that the Liberals are having a difficult time trying to sell their carbon tax to Canadians. Almost daily we find examples of Liberals confusing people with the details or just contradicting each other and their leader on the plan. With that in mind Liberal MP Hedy Fry was on with Dave Rutherford last Tuesday to talk about Dion's carbon tax and to help clarify some of the confusion about the green shift for Canadians.

Wow, Hedy clarified alright, but I am not sure that Stephane Dion and the rest of the Liberals will agree with her definition of clarity after some of the wild claims she made that directly contradict what those others have been saying about the green shift.

And what did Hedy clarify for us?: Fry= blue. Dave Rutherford = brown. My comments in black

The green shift WILL tax gasoline. Yes you did read that right; Hedy says that the carbon tax will be on gasoline. I guess she missed the memo.

"We're taxing wholesale." ("wholesale what? Wholesale Gasoline?") "Yes, wholesale gasoline, diesel, coal, ah not simply natural gas, but gas, diesel, coal, propane, all of those things will be (taxed) at the wholesale level".
Later she clarifies that the wholesale level is going to mean that the tax will be applied at the refinery, but not to worry because it is not going to be added on at the pumps. "But it is not taxing you when you go to fill up your tank as well. It is not taxing the farmer when he goes to get diesel for his tractor. It is not doing that." and ""It is not coming out of your pockets. It is coming out of the wholesale level pocket."

Hmm, didn't Ralph Goodale state that 2/3 of the fuels produced in Saskatchewan and Alberta would not be taxed because it will end up being burned out of the country and not in Canada? Like all great Liberals Hedy clarifies for us just what Goodale meant to say; and in the process contradicts her interpretation of what Goodale said in mid sentence. "What he is trying to say is that it is not going to be passed on to the person who is buying gas at the retail level, and but we do know that it will in fact increase costs." Huh?

Ah the clarity! I feel so much better now, as I am sure Ralph Goodale does too considering how Hedy clarified his remarks for him in such a stellar way. Got that? Ralph was wrong on the carbon tax being imposed at the refinery level, and also wrong about the costs not being passed on to the consumer at the pumps because the green shift will increase costs. "You are admitting though that a wholesale level increase will translate into retail prices that are higher for food, for power, for fuel, for everything right?" "Absolutely". She goes on later to again confirm that costs will be higher because of the green shift for both fuel and food. "So that is going to again help them because the cost of food is going up, because of fuel costs" and "When you truck stuff from a to b people pay for it at the supermarket level" It would seem that these comments contradict some of her others about the cost of the carbon tax not coming out of our pockets, but why nit pick.


Wait, Hedy isn't finished with the breaking news announcements just yet.

Did you know that:

The green shift will not be providing tax breaks as previously stated by everyone else who has spoken on this so far, but rather Hedy announced the news that the Liberals will be issuing cheques to Canadians instead. "Wait a second. You are going to give Canadians cheques? "Yes". and later confirming this again when questioned by Rutherford about the cheques; "This is new. Hedy you are going to be giving cheques to people. I did not know this". "Yes"

Oil was $200 a barrel on August 5th: "Look let me tell you, I mean 25(?) uh 200 dollar a barrel of oil".


Those living in the North will be getting an additional tax break of $2000. "The northern allowance for the very cold regions of Canada are going to get an increased northern allowance of about $2000 dollars to help them with heating." Interesting; the green shift policy book states that the northern allowance will go up "to a new maximum of $7,000 per year from just over $6,000" which translates to an immediate tax savings of nearly $150 per year and over $200 per year within four years for those who fully benefit from the NRD." More Liberal math I guess.


The Liberals are going to keep the Conservative $100/month Child Care benefit? Hedy confirms this for all in the following: "All families, meaning with children. who actually it doesn't matter what your tax rate is will be for instance getting a boost of about $250 dollars a year on top of the child benefits that are already there for them."



Clarity, thy name is Hedy.

You can listen to this for yourself at QR77. (audio vault Tuesday Aug 5th 2008 @ 930am) note the file will only be available for a limited time.

Update: Steve Jenke has a transcript and a audio copy of the interview here.

Martha Hall Findlay has forsaken me!

Oh what a sad day it is at the old anthill today as I have just found out that Steve Janke over at Angry in the Great White North received an email from Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay in regards to comments she had made about Dion's carbon tax, and which Steve posted about here.
The very same comments that had I quoted in my post here a full 2 days before Steve made his post on his blog which contained a link to my original post.

FYI here is the MHF quote: "Findlay said it's impossible to calculate the emission reduction numbers at this point, "because energy prices have gone up so much, we don't know how the shift will affect consumption," she said."

Martha, why have you forsaken me for Janke? Am I not 'angry' enough to deserve an email from you, or perhaps is it because you prefer beavers who wear cute little toques over aardvarks?

I must know the truth. Why Martha, why?

----------

Update: Steve Janke linked to this post as his comments on the MHF email have been closed off. Feel free to add anything to the comments here.

Here is the email: My comments in bold

Assuming that you strive for accuracy, (If there was something inaccurate about the quote used, please let us know.)I have the following clarifications to make to one of your recent posts. You referred to comments on the Green Shift I made at an event, where I was discussing the impact of the Green Shift on the environment.

Adding a carbon tax to the burning of fossil fuels will, absolutely, have the effect of reducing emissions; I have never said otherwise. (Yes, but you have no idea how much, or even if the carbon tax will have any more affect than what the market is already doing. We do live in a northern climate and we do need to heat our homes and use electricity, so no matter how high those costs go Canadians are still going to have to use fossil fuels.)It has been demonstrated repeatedly, around the world, that adding to market forces is the most effective way to affect behaviour. ( Care to cite some examples of this with regards to CO2 emissions?) Those of us old enough remember significant fuel-reduction behaviour due to the 1970s oil crisis. ( That was the market that did this and not some feel good government policy disguised as an environment plan.)

There will be reductions in emissions from the Green Shift because we know that people will change their consumption patterns if polluting behaviours cost more. This is already occurring, to some extent, due to other factors in today’s market – namely rapidly increased oil prices. (I am glad you can see this is already occurring already because of the market. So why do you see the need to punish the poor even more by adding on more costs to them, by way of the Liberal proposed carbon tax?)The Green Shift, by adding a price on the burning of other carbon dioxide emitters, – coal is a prime and very polluting example – will reduce emissions even more. (Are you suggesting that the big coal users, like power plants, are going to burn less coal because it is going to cost them more, rather than just passing those added costs on to the consumer?)

My point is that both increased market oil prices and the imposition of a price on the burning of other fossil fuels, when working together, will reduce green-house gas emissions even further. It will, however, be difficult to determine the exact proportions of the reduction attributable to each. ( Thank you for confirming your original quote that you do not know how the carbon tax will affect consumption. And for accuracy's sake, that was the point that myself and Steve Janke made with our blog posts.)

Reducing emissions, helping people deal with immediate energy costs through significant income tax cuts, and encouraging investment in green technology and renewable energy sources, all at the same time – it sure sounds pretty good to me. (Yes it does sound good, but are you now making the promise that those tax cuts we get back are going to cover ALL of the increased costs brought on by the green shift?)

(I didn't think so. Because like emission reductions, you have no idea just what those costs are going to really be.)

Finally, a picky point perhaps, but for future reference, my last name is Hall Findlay, not just Findlay. (You are going to have to talk to Steve about that one, but as Jen pointed out in the comments; the next time you mention the PM please be sure to refer to him as Prime Minister Harper and not just Harper.)

Thank you.

Martha Hall Findlay
Member of Parliament / Députée
Willowdale
Associate Finance Critic / porte-parole associée en matière de finances

Anxiously Awaiting the Liberal Press Release Condemning Obama

Is anyone else anxiously awaiting the Liberal Party of Canada press release condemning Barrack Obama's proposed gasoline rebate of $1000 dollars per family?




I will be out for most of the day, but if anyone happens to see Dion and the Liberals condemnation of this $1000 gasoline rebate that will encourage Americans to consume even more gasoline and produce more CO2, please post a link in the comments.

Thank you in advance.

Al

For your viewing pleasure Paris Hilton proposes her own energy plan.

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Grenade Attack on police station in China kills 16

Terrorist attack in China.

AFP Sixteen policemen in China's Muslim-majority northwest were killed on Monday in a suspected terrorist attack, state media said, raising security fears four days before the Beijing Olympics.


Still waiting for someone from the left to blame Bush.

Contrasting environment visions. Dion vs. Liberal.ca

Stephane Dion purposes his carbon tax; the so called green shift.

The official LPC website Liberal.ca promotes something a little different.


Is it any wonder why these guys are having such a tough time selling their carbon tax grab to Canadians when their own party website is promoting a radically different policy that is now well over a year old.

Too funny. Over a month has now gone by since Dion went public with the details of his carbon tax and not 1 person over at Liberal.ca even noticed, and perhaps worse yet, not a single Liberal visiting their site bothered to tell them about it. Truly a great show of the true Liberal commitment to the environment vision and support for your own policy, or is that policies?


Blog note:

I am going to be taking a few days off from the blog and spend some time enjoying some of what our short summer has to offer.

Until then, thank you again for reading ,and for all of your comments.

Al

Ralph Goodale and the mystical Liberal money fairy.

Fighting for his political life in his home province, Liberal MP Ralph Goodale takes his attempt at selling the carbon tax to the people of Saskatchewan and invokes the mysterious Liberal money fairy in the process.

What Mystical Liberal Money Fairy am I talking about you ask. Well the one that is going to have to come up with the real money for the Liberal promises and claims of increased spending on, R&D both in private industry and universities, alternative energy, new green based business', public transit, an Office of Petroleum Price Information, emissions reducing technology, special funds, and other assorted promises made by Dion and his band of inept Liberals.

Just how big are these Liberal promises? Lets see what Ralph Goodale had to say on that.

"And those investments are going to bring literally billions of dollars in new business activity to these two provinces. While we had the initial problem of the largest bulk of emissions, we have ultimately the biggest benefit of the largest amount of the new investment that is going to be made to deal with those emissions and the order of magnitude could be about the size of building the St. Lawrence Seaway and that will come into Alberta and Saskatchewan over the course of the next 10-15 years".


Now that sure sounds big to me, but there remains an issue that the Liberals have seemed to overlook, or are purposely omitting in their efforts to deceive Canadians.

Just where is all of this money going to come from?

It cannot be from the taxes collected via the green shift because that is promised to be revenue neutral and "that every dollar that is raised from carbon pollution will be returned to Canadians in tax" cuts." and the Liberals are planning to write that into law and have it monitored by the Auditor General.

So if not even $1.00 of taxes collected by the green shift will be going into either directly reducing CO2 emissions or into ANY of the programs/spending promised by the numerous Liberals out trying to sell this fraud of an environment program to Canadians; where will those big promises of investment money come from?

You guessed it; the mystical Liberal money fairy.


All of this talk about the money that will be flowing into the economy are nothing but empty promises and very wishful thinking on the part of Dion and the Liberals. There is no basis in reality for these claims and again the Liberal Party of Canada are showing us their arrogance and contempt by taking the voters and taxpayers of this country for idiots by trying to convince us otherwise. Nobody is buying it, the plan is a dud and the Liberals will be rewarded for their contempt at the ballot box.


That is unless they happen to have a Mystical Liberal Vote Fairy on standby as well.

------

A quick afterthought: If PM Harper made the very same dubious claims about alleged billions of dollars of investment money that would magically come rolling into Canada as a result of his governments environment plan (and he could because the claims are nothing but pie in the sky wishful thinking not based on reality); how long do you thing it would take for those claims to be chewed up and ripped apart on the front pages of every news paper in the country?

So why the silence from the MSM?

July 27,1953 The Korean War ends

55 years ago today the Korean War came to an end when an armistice was signed. 26,791 Canadians served in the war and 516 lost their lives in the conflict including 45 who died in peacekeeping duties after the war ended.

Some consider the Korean conflict to be Canada's forgotten war and an argument could easily be made to that affect, but what ever your thoughts on that topic please take a moment today to remember those that did serve and those that fell in the name of Canada.

They all deserve not to be forgotten even if 'their war' has.

Another day, and more green shift lies revealed

Stephane Dion, July 2,2008: "I won't have to hire a single civil servant" to implement the carbon tax formally known as the green shift.

July 23, 2008 Dion says he will create an"Office of Petroleum Price Information" as part of his green shift proposal.

In other words, Dion is going to hire a civil servant, or more accurately, civil servants. Sigh; why am I not surprised.

And what will this proposed office be doing exactly?

Well according to Gerrard Kennedy:Part of their job will be to see that oil refiners will not pass those new taxes on to the consumer and if they try, part of the money generated from carbon taxes will go to creating a new 'energy ombudsman' to stop 'em in their tracks.

This is interesting considering that Dion himself has already admitted that industry WILL pass on these added costs from the carbon tax onto consumers, and unless the Liberals are planning to introduce a set of draconian laws that would limit what industry can charge for their own products; what Kennedy stated above would not only be completely impossible to do, it would also be illegal.

So unless Kennedy has just accidentally exposed the LPC hidden agenda for us all to see, which I really doubt; he has just proven himself to be just another Liberal spokesman playing fast and loose with the truth in their efforts to con Canadians into believing the green shift is good policy.

Another day, another lie exposed.

900 Days

Congratulations to PM Harper and his Government for being in office 900 days.

For a list of what this government has accomplished please follow this LINK.

Dion confirms what MHF said about the greenshift.

Stephane Dion has confirmed what Martha Hall Findlay had earlier stated about green shift and its dubious claims of reducing CO2 emissions.

"Findlay said it's impossible to calculate the emission reduction numbers at this point, "because energy prices have gone up so much, we don't know how the shift will affect consumption," she said."

Dion at a speaking engagement in New Brunswick: "He also said they know this plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but can't say for sure by how much until they see how industry reacts once it's implemented."

Oh, and just how does Dion think industry will react?

"When asked if those companies will simply pass the costs along to the customer, he said that's likely in the beginning, but will change as companies invest in greener technology to pay less tax."

Sure it will Stephane; because there are plenty of reasons for industry to invest their own money to reduce taxes that are already being passed on to someone else.

Lots of incentive in that plan isn't there?

Update: Dion puts his foot in his mouth again. "Mr. Dion said he would only put $3-billion of each annual surplus toward the debt, making any additional surplus available for spending priorities that may come up as a result of the green shift." h/t KerPlonka

Spending priorities as a result of the green shift? Wasn't this plan promised to be revenue neutral?

Stephane Dion - A "so called" Denier.

As promised yesterday; a follow up post. (please read yesterdays post for some context)

Stephane Dion does not believe that the left wing of the political spectrum exists in Canada.

Yes really, he said so himself and it can be seen here on CTV's Question Period . (video below)

Sorry NDP, Communists, Socialists, 3/4 of what remains of Liberal Party supporters, Marxists, and other various lefties everywhere; but Dion does not think you exist.

See for yourself. No editing and taken 100% in context.

Denying the existence of the left wing;this is big!

There is a chance that Dion really could be hurt in the polls with this and I think I should get out an email to fellow Blogging Tories ASAP.

To all Blogging Tories

Hi all,

On CTV's Question Period, Dion referred to the "so
called
left; left wing". I don't know about you, but I believe that this is
a
big screw up on his part.

If you agree, please mention it. It is the sort of thing that the MSM
should be forced to pick up.

A Ardvark

Let's force those MSM lackeys to run with what has to be the biggest story of the year, and please try to ignore the Liberals who are trying to spin this; so far they have two responses to this Freudian slip.

First of all, if it is no big deal then why doesn't Dion say it all the time? Clearly he knows that this is not something Canadians would appreciate. Yes, it is similar to when journalists refer to the "so called war on terror". They are not saying there is no war on terror, but neither are they saying that there is a "war on terror". "So called" clearly suggests a certain cynicism about the subject under discussion.

The second excuse is even worse. You don't go around saying "so called left wing" unless you have a reason for saying it. My suspicion is that Dion often says this in private and made a mistake by saying it in public. That is why he did not and likely will never repeat the phrase. There is no doubt in my mind that Dion recognized almost immediately that he said something he should not have said. The fact that he tried to cover up his error does not change the fact that he gave us a momentary glimpse into his psyche.


Wouldn't it be great if I could get the PM to include this quote into an official government document somehow? But I doubt that it would be an easy task, because what type of a moron would use spin like this without checking out the facts first? (edit: Link to Stephane Dion removed)

Dion incorporates Cherniak manufactured spin into Liberal policy.

Stephane Dion, the so called intellectual, the one who called for honest debate, and the one who decries low brow politics has contradicted all of the above by allowing an already dis proven, deliberately taken out of context, partisan driven and manufactured smear to be used in the official Liberal policy document regarding the Green shift. So much for taking the high road Mr. Dion.

I am referring to the following quote taken from page 15 of the Green Shift document.

"Sadly, Stephen Harper - who as Prime Minister has referred to what he terms “so-called greenhouse gases” -...."


The quote, or rather out context quote, has an interesting history and is a classic example of the Liberal spin machine in action; read on and see for yourself to what depths the Liberals will go in their efforts to smear the PM.


FYI the original words as spoken by PM Harper Dec 14 2006 in an end of year interview on CBC: "As we implement our clean-air agenda, the focus is a little different than the other parties. They focus only on so-called greenhouse gases and ignored smog entirely."

The spin campaign:

Jason Cherniak December 14th 2006 (Be sure to read the comments for good lesson on Liberal spin) "Stephen Harper just referred to "so called greenhouse gasses" during his end of session press conference! Apparently, the other parties pay too much attention to them."

Not one to let a little thing like the truth or facts get in the way of a smear; Cherniak ignored the reality of the"quote" as pointed out in other blogs or even in his own comment section and continued with his campaign to heavily promote the smear with the following email to all members of Liblogs.

The Email:
From Jason Cherniak (Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:43:25):

Hi all,

In his final press conference of the year, Harper referred to "so
called
greenhouse gasses". I don't know about you, but I believe that this is
a
big screw up on his part.

If you agree, please mention it. It is the sort of thing that the MSM
should be forced to pick up.

Blogger Support Services: a non-profit corporation operating as
<http://www.libBSblogs.ca/> Liblogs
per: Jason R. Cherniak
President

Did you catch that? "Force" the media to pick up on the story. A story about a quote that Cherniak knew full well was taken completely out of context but still wanted to promote for his partisan purposes.

December 15th, 2006 Jason goes even farther with his campaign and he posts a conveniently edited video. (Note that he again gets eaten alive for this in the comments but still continues with the smear attempt and lies)

December 21, 2006 a proud Jason Cherniak proclaims his smear campaign a success when it gets picked up by some in the MSM who like Dion himself apparently could not be bothered with some simple fact checking.

"Finally, Harper's slip of the tongue where he referred to "so called" greenhouse gases has been reported in the main stream media.

I first reported this as it happened one week ago. Other Liberal bloggers quickly picked up thestory. We then highlighted the posts on Liblogs news. It was not long before somebody posted a video clip on YouTube, which has now been viewed over 900 times.

Conservatives have two responses to this Freudian slip:

1) It is no big deal because "so called" is the proper way to describe greenhouse gases; and

2) It is no big deal because the rest of Harper's statement supposedly makes it clear that he accepts the science behind global warming.

Neither of these arguments are particularly persuasive. First of all, if it is no big deal then why doesn't Harper say it all the time? Clearly he knows that this is not something Canadians would appreciate. Yes, it is similar to when journalists refer to the "so called war on terror". They are not saying there is no war on terror, but neither are they saying that there is a "war on terror". "So called" clearly suggests a certain cynicism about the subject under discussion.

The second excuse is even worse. You don't go around saying "so called greenhouse gases" unless you have a reason for saying it. My suspicion is that Harper often says this in private and made a mistake by saying it in public. That is why he did not and likely will never repeat the phrase. There is no doubt in my mind that Harper recognized almost immediately that he said something he should not have said. The fact that he tried to cover up his error does not change the fact that he gave us a momentary glimpse into his psyche.

I know that Tories will do everything they can to attack this story. They absolutely hate it when anybody reports facts that happen to counteract their hard sold message that Harper has changed his mind on a number of issues. Before they do it, though, I hope they consider one thing. If Stéphane Dion were to briefly refer to the United States as our "so called ally", nobody would let it slip by.

I can't wait to see the clip on TV.

UPDATE

Little did I know that the Halifax Chronicle Herald already mentioned this. I can't find the date of the article."


Unbelievable, but even more unbelievable is that now Stephane Dion is using this type of crap in official Liberal Party of Canada policy.

I am not sure if Dion is deliberately trying to mislead Canadians with this or if he isn't smart enough to have done his own homework on the words he himself is quoting and actually believes this ridiculous manufactured spin. Either way these are not the characteristics that I would ever want in a Canadian PM.


As I await the usual suspects to arrive and try to defend Dion's use of the quote, or even Cherniak's smear campaign, I will be preparing a follow up post that really shows just how dumb this entire thing is.

Stay tuned.

Bob Rae confirms that Dion's carbon tax is not an environment policy.

Bob Rae doing his best Ken Boshcoff impersonation: "Mr. Rae said the plan makes the tax system more progressive and could reduce poverty by 30 per cent and child poverty by 50 per cent with a child tax credit."

There you have it again folks; the green shift is not an environment plan but rather just a tax grab to pay for another in a long line of failed Liberal social programs.

I wonder what Garth Turner will have to say now since it was only a few days ago that Liberal MP Ken Boshcoff faced a firestorm of criticism when he let the cat out of the bag with his now famous statement, The ‘shift’ will transfer wealth from rich to poor, from the oil patch to the rest of the country, and from the coffers of big business to the pockets of low-income Canadians." This admission was vehemently denied by Garth Turner who had the audacity to try to translate what Mr. Boshcoff really meant to say and claim to us all "the goal of the Dion plan, which is to tackle climate change, not to redistribute wealth".


What a mess these guys are. One Liberal MP tells the truth about the carbon tax, whether he intended to or not is another question, another Liberal MP jumps in to spin and translate what the first guy meant, and now a third Liberal MP confirms as correct what the first MP said and in the process discredits the second MP and exposes his Liberal spin.

With friends like these....

PM Harper Bring him home now.

Enough is enough; it is time that the government of Canada did the right thing and repatriated a Canadian citizen currently being oppressed in a foreign jail. We have all seen his videos and we know the truth.

I don't care if he allegedly committed his crime in the US and that some of you feel that he should be tried and held to those barbaric US laws. As a Canadian he deserves the protection of the Charter. The corrupt legal system of the US is well known and I doubt, with all the expected publicity that is sure to follow, that he will be able to receive a fair trial under such a system. He is Canadian who has rights, and we as a society have a moral obligation to do the right thing no matter who they are.

Mr. Harper please put a stop to this travesty of justice and do the right thing.

Bring Steven Page home now!



.
Update: (Developing) According to my sources Paula Todd and Dan McTeague have both been seen heading towards the home of Steven Page's mother with camera crews in tow.