So...Harper & Co.’s #1 priority is the economy...

Sure.  That’s what they are saying, right?

Except...

Today, at the time I checked it, National News Watch carried 2 articles related to the government and the economy.  It also carried...17 articles on the gun registry.  Some of those were opinion pieces, but many were prompted directly by the CONs actions and statements on the registry:

Harper and three of his cabinet members will interrupt UN visit

Harper vows gun registry will be scrapped some day

Tories turn Google against rural MPs in gun-registry feud

MacKay blasts long-gun registry

 Tories won't give up on gun registry

Baird slams 'Toronto elites' over gun registry

Seriously.  If you were in charge of running the country, would the gun registry be anywhere near the top of your to-do list?  Would it even make the top ten?  The top twenty?

How about this, or this, or this, or this, or this, or this, or this or this, or this?

Yeah, scrapping that registry is real important shit.  Should save lives.  Make our lifestyle so much better.  Raise our standard of living.  Build a safer world.  Go miles forward in fighting poverty.  Reduce racism.  Provide jobs.  Improve health care.  Assure better education to all.

...well, maybe not.

But it will make a small percentage of gun owners happy and will put some of their money in the CONs coffers.

Certainly worth the effort and expense.  Certainly more important than everything else.                   

Those oh so powerful CONs

Those powerful CONs

Changing the meaning of words.

Take the word “elite.”

1 - a small group of people who have a lot of advantages and keep the most power and influence
2 - the best or most skillful people in a group

Now it seems elite has a double-plus-bad, but very nebulous meaning which now allows it to be widely applied without explanation to anyone or anything the CONs feel threatened by:

"I share the disappointment of many of my colleagues that people who had fought so long, so hard, so passionately against the registry are now feeling the pressure from the two Toronto leaders, Mr. Ignatieff and Mr. Layton," Baird said.  "We're all accountable. If we make clear and unambiguous promises in our constituencies and then face pressure from Toronto elites, [MPs are] accountable for that."

Remember the labeling by Harper of artists as elites?  Or of Dion and Ignatieff in attack ads?

The word has been tossed about by the CONs in negative context so often, it has joined the pool of other terms generally meaning some vague form of not-good, or even enemy of the people. 

Other words twisted and reduced by the CONs to offer similar vague, negative tone: academic, cosmopolitan.

It’s the dumbing down of language for political control over a population.  Newspeak.


Of course, the Harper edition of Newspeak needs some fine tuning as concerns the word elite.  In some instances, it still holds positive connotations: military elite, elite forces, elite squad.  I guess if you have a gun and are sanctioned by the government to use it, being elite is a good thing.

Trust Rick Mercer to point out Baird’s dishonest use of the word:

"He has a chauffeur! He's beating people up for being elite?"

and:

"You wanna know what elite is? It's John Baird in a tuxedo, going to the National Arts Centre with the Prime Minister's wife on his arm, complaining that the food is not good enough. That's John Baird right there in a nutshell." 

Now does this post make me a bolshevick?

1984 is not a how-to manual, Harper

But he sure seems to think it is.

Natural Resources Canada scientists were told this spring they need “pre-approval” from Minister Christian Paradis’ office to speak with national and international journalists. Their “media lines” also need ministerial approval, say documents obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation.

The documents say the “new” rules went into force in March and reveal how they apply to not only to contentious issues including the oilsands, but benign subjects such as floods that occurred 13,000 years ago.

Holy paranoid PM, Batman!

Before any of you wingnuts go on about who cares what happened 13,000 years ago, they why are we paying people to message-manage scientists about that?  And consider also that all messages are being managed and edited.

They also give a glimpse of how Canadians are being cut off from scientists whose work is financed by taxpayers, critics say, and is often of significant public interest — be it about fish stocks, genetically modified crops or mercury pollution in the Athabasca River.

I don’t know about you, but I sure want to know what’s in my food and water.

The control and micro-management points to a high level of “science illiteracy” in the upper ranks of the federal government, (Weaver) says, and “incredible disrespect” for both the researchers and the taxpayers footing the government’s multi-billion-dollar science bill.

“The sad reality is that these guys in Ottawa think federal scientists work for them,” says Weaver. “They don’t, they work for the people of Canada.  This is science funded by Canada for the public good,” he says. “It is not science funded to produce briefing notes for ministers so they can get elected in the next federal campaign.”

Canadians had better wake up and put a stop to this muzzling and editing.  We pay for reports and studies, we should expect and receive the truth.  It isn’t that the government considers us too fragile to handle the truth, it’s that it knows that we will indeed grasp it and expect those we elect to act on the information for our benefit, not theirs.

Crass and opportunistic

While people all over the world marked the anniversary of the September 11 attacks - some by remembering the victims, others by promoting peace so that the tragedy is not used to fuel more hatred and death, our own Prime Minister used the day to forward his own divisive political agenda.  Sadly, his agenda rides on promoting fear and division.

"Sadly, the threat of terrorism is still very much a global reality, including right here at home," Harper said. "No country is immune.  "International and home-grown radical groups continue to pose a real danger to our safety, and we must remain ever-vigilant."      

Certainly, we need to address threats of terrorism, but tying such warnings into a statement of remembrance on the anniversary of the attacks is crass and opportunistic.  It is difficult not to view his overall statement as less than sincere.

I remember how the US encouraged its citizens immediately after the attacks not to give into fear because that’s what the terrorists want.  They would like our lives disrupted, they would like us to spend money and time on quelling this fear, and they want us to react with anger and hatred.  Those reactions fuel their propaganda.  “See?” they can then say, “we told you they are our enemies.”

But in Canada, Harper wants us to be afraid, and he wants us to hate someone, anyone, so that he can portray them as the common enemy.

When we are afraid of this enemy, we are less likely to question how money is spent on defense.  We don’t question sending our own to face death in other countries.  We don’t worry as much about climate change, unemployment, or corruption within our own government.

We don’t resist when our own rights are violated in the name of security.

What a small minded, vile, hate filled man we have for a Prime Minister.

A global problem

While there is little doubt that the Harper government has made itself a major player on Steve’s precious world stage when it comes to stalling talks on coping with the negative effects of climate change, it is not alone in trivializing if not outright mocking global warming and its effects.
Are the CONs truly so stupid, so atavistic as to believe the planet isn’t warming?  This may be the case for a few perhaps such as Day and Gooyear, CON icons of god before science, but some conservatives need no convincing.

Harper’s interest in the Arctic tells us of a far worse political reality than simple ignorance.  The government is fully aware that global warming is altering our environment at an alarming rate, but they deal with the situation with the typical sociopathological approach of governments more concerned about money and garnering votes than with what is good for the majority of the citizens they were elected to represent.

In a report released Tuesday, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center described the opening of the Northwest Passage through Canada's Arctic islands and the "unusually fast" melting of ice in the Beaufort Sea as highlights of another extensive circumpolar thaw that has all northern nations -including Canada -scrambling to cope with increased Arctic ship traffic and to plan for potential oil and gas development.

Canada and the four other Arctic Ocean coastal nations -Russia, the U.S., Denmark and Norway -have pledged to co-operate in creating new search-and-rescue and environmental-protection regimes to manage increased shipping, tourism and economic development in the melting Arctic.

There is full acknowledgment by government of the ice melt, with little doubt they expect more to come, and quickly.  Plans are being made at a frantic pace.  Big bucks are being invested.  But for development. 

Sociopaths consider and act on all things with one perspective in mind: How they will be affected, leading to two considerations: what’s in it for them, and how can it harm them.

Thomas Walkom exposes some of this approach in a Star column today on the Harper’s government’s action on the economy.

Some explain this disjunction by arguing that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is ideologically blinkered. But that isn’t the whole explanation. There are other forces at work...they also fear doing anything that might interfere with the normal boom and bust of free-market capitalism.  More to the point, they fear alienating core voters.

In fact, for many who support right-wing parties, moderately high unemployment is useful...
Best of all it keeps the population in line. Most are too busy worrying about their jobs to pay attention to matters like climate change or the Alberta oilsands.

Warming and resulting effects are real and we must take advantage of them.  Warming is bull-shit, the climate isn’t changing, and look!...the Economy!!!!

Until climate change hits Canadians as personally as tax hikes, job cuts, and climbing costs of living, not enough of us will put pressure on our politicians - of any party  - to deal with negative climate change issues.  Without the pressure from voters, it is unlikely that any party will take on the warming challenges in anything more than a token way.  It just has too many down-sides politically.

That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t keep demanding change.  When the majority of Canadians finally are forced by circumstances to treat warming as something worth casting a vote over, a relevant dialogue will already be well established from which a larger population can build on.

Next step: interviewing himself.

This is great.  Fucking hilarious, in fact.  Like it was written for a sit-com where the main dude thinks he’s the only one who knows what’s going on when really, he’s the only one who doesn’t.  Makes you want to story-board it.

The Prime Minister of Canada blew into central Vancouver Island Wednesday afternoon to tout facilities being built with federal dollars and provide some photo ops for local media and MPs.

"Did they tell you this is all oyster shells?" Stephen Harper said to the media, assembled behind a make-shift partition 10 metres away at the Deep Bay Field Research Station.

He paused a moment, holding a crushed shell…The dozen reporters present, surprised he'd even acknowledge them, said nothing.

So far, Harper true to character, everyone exactly where the master strategist wanted them...But then -

His security men, looking the part in dark suits (with bulges) and sunglasses, kept looking our way and beyond, into the trees. His handlers, who had been busy imposing the rules of the game ("I want you over there, sir, with the rest of the media"; "Remember, no questions. Do you have a problem with that?") kept poker faces also. The people with him, MP James Lunney (Nanaimo-Alberni), VIU president Dr. Ralph Nilson and project manager Brian Kingzett, stopped chatting with the Prime Minister and waited.

Sorta like when everyone except the emperor, so wrapped in his ego he’s oblivious to all else, realizes he has no clothes.  But the serfs keep right on pretending, acting as though every journalist there hadn’t just ignored the Prime Minister of Canada’s question.

Since nobody else said anything, Mr. Harper finished the thought himself. "It is," he said. Then he returned to face his hosts and continue his banter with them, just out of earshot.

Well, many Canadians are beginning to suspect he talks to himself because he’s the only company he really enjoys.

And you have to think that Mr. Harper might ultimately be the loser in this game he's playing, setting himself apart from the media rabble. Because while it may be safer in some ways, it also has its risks: being seen as lacking courage is one of them, and failing to address local concerns is another.

Hmmm…lack of courage.  Proroguing Parliament rather than face the consequences of his actions; hiding behind the troops, behind public servants, behind his own MPs; never, ever, ever admitting he made a mistake.  I think old Steve is past that tipping point.

You’re really mad at the CONs for this, right, wingnuts?

A new panel created by the Harper government will move to raise employment insurance premiums by the maximum allowed, despite calls to leave payroll taxes frozen in light of Canada’s fragile jobs picture.

Canadians will start feeling the hit on their paycheques when the two-year freeze on EI premiums announced in the 2009 budget comes to an end on Jan. 1. Employers will also have to cough up more in premiums for their workers, which economists and business groups warn could hurt employment.

That’s a double-whammy, there.  Hurts employment and…here it comes…takes money out of the hands of hard workin’, Timmie’s drinkin’ Canadians to support them-thar no-account, lazy unemployed soashlists.

Damn!!!!

So you right wingers are making your protest signs at this moment, correct?

But don’t despair.  There’s plenty of bad news for the bleeding heart Liberals and socialists as well.  While people with jobs will be paying more into EI, people who have been paying into it and now need it will receive less.

As of Saturday, Ottawa will cancel an extra five weeks of regular EI benefits and end a program that provided up to an additional 20 weeks of benefits for longer-serving employees.

For older workers who suddenly find themselves unemployed after years of long-term service this is a crushing blow, says Ontario’s Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Monique Smith.

…The EI clawback is nationwide.

The CONs don’t get it, and Steve must have cheated his way through economics.  They treat stimulus action like a check list:  promise made, promise kept!!!!  As long as some action was taken that could be coupled with a PMO press release and a photo op, mission accomplished as far as they are concerned.  Setting rigid deadlines with no regard as to the current and future economical and job climate shows ignorance of the problem, and lack of concern for those they claim the actions were supposed to help.

The Bank of Canada is talking about “unusual uncertainty” in reference to the economy, saying that the stagnating U.S. economy is what’s keeping economists awake at night.

Higher deductions on paychecks, uncertainty over employment, cuts to EI that working Canadians, laid off during the recent crisis...those things are very close to home for people.  Photo ops in front of cool, expensive military equipment that we don't really need, a stadium in Quebec, and billions for prison cells for unreported criminals probably won't  win the CONs a lot of votes right now.

So will these good Christians take responsibility for the slaughter they cause?

Dove...World Outreach...words that bring to mind peace, compassion and tolerance.

Look again.

The small evangelical church — the Dove World Outreach Center based in Gainesville, Fla. — plans to burn copies of the Muslim holy book on Sept. 11, the ninth anniversary of the attacks on the U.S. The church has been denied a permit to hold a bonfire but has said it will go ahead with the burning.

Gen. David Petraeus said burning the Muslim holy book could endanger U.S. troops and Americans worldwide.

No kidding.  I am a strong supporter of freedom of expression, but when you know with very near certainty that certain activities will lead to deaths, then that protest should be curtailed.  Something about inciting hatred and violence...

Fifteen people died in riots in Afghanistan in 2005, after Newsweek magazine reported that interrogators at the U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay allegedly flushed a copy of the Qur'an down the toilet in order to provoke inmates to talk. The magazine later retracted its story.

Fifteen deaths resulting from a rumour.  And here, the Doves at World Outreach plan to hold this publicized mass burning of the Muslim holy book.  How many deaths will follow as a direct result?  What further damage will be caused by this organized show of hatred and intolerance?

Here is what the Dove World Outreach center is about, from their own site:  

Islam is of the Devil, the new book by Dr. Terry Jones, is available now!
 
September 11th is International Burn a Koran Day

Abortion is murder. Homosexuality is sin.

God loves you and he longs for a real and deep relationship with you. He created you on purpose and it's his desire that everyone knows and fulfills his calling.

I guess that doesn’t apply to those who are of the devil.  Wonder who created them?

Thankfully, the link between Islam and Nazism is being discussed more openly now.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).  Any religion which would profess anything other than this truth is of the devil. This is why we also take a stand against Islam, which teaches that Jesus is not the Son of God, therefore taking away the saving power of Jesus Christ and leading people straight to Hell.

...so...I guess Judaism is leading people straight to hell as well?
Not according to this post title on the racist Dove’s site:

Islam is Cursed by Cursing Israel; we are Blessed by Blessing Israel

A common question we get from Moslems: why don’t you have a sign that says “Jews are of the devil”? First of all, we do not say “Moslems are of the devil.” We do not hate Moslems (or anyone) or wish them harm. Rather, we say “Islam is of the devil” because the teachings of Islam and what that produces in lies, violence and oppression are of the devil. We hope and pray that Moslems will come out of Islam and become Christians.

If Jews deny that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Savior of the World, then their beliefs are also of the devil, in the sense that they will not be saved. However, there is much more hope for the teachings of Judaism leading people to a belief in Christ, since they are pointed constantly to the hope of the Messiah, than for the followers of Mohammad.

And because education is largely reviled among fundamentalists except when attached to the name of a Ministry's leader (without proper credentials, of course), this church has not one, but three no-name brand doctorates behind it:

Dr. Terry Jones  racist, massively corrupt homophobe; Dr, Donald Northrup, deceased, of the defunct and corrupt Maranatha Ministries.  ; Dr. Richard H. Wright, also of Maranatha Ministries.

Money laudering schemes 

The church also maintains a Dove World Outreach Academy in Gainesville, in which students are prohibited from outside contact and work without compensation in selling, packing and shipping of furniture for TS and Company.

Sure.  Sound like the type of folks who should lead others to “stand up for righteousness and for the truth of the Bible.” 

Well, with all their money scams, making the families of those killed as a result of their Qur'an burning hate event can sue them.

Fox Fiction North: Lies, the series - 1

                                               (photo by Alison)
Might as well start numbering these.  Might as well count on setting an hour or so aside every day for them as well.

Paul Schneidereit of the Chronicle Herald is a dishonest sack of manure:

The vociferous — and at times unhinged — attacks by critics on the proposed new Sun TV News channel, or "Fox News North" as its detractors like to call it, are really about censorship.

No it isn’t.  Many, like Atwood, are concerned about the process - the Sun TV application to the CRTC seems to have been fast-tracked.    Also, there is little doubt that Harper himself has had his fingers in this, it being now confirmed that he met with Fox News reps months ago with Kory at his side.  While we do not have minutes of the meeting, it cannot be ignored considering circumstances and Harper's obsession with message control and free propaganda.  Also, unlike most of his meetings with high level groups where he has his camera crew in tow for the latest photo op, he tried to keep this meeting secret.  No, I’m not going to link to this, it is now common knowledge.

As critics have been saying repeatedly, we cannot have a Prime Minister hand out licenses to media groups.

Another note on the free speech line: some people do object to the proposed content, and rightly so.  Journalists are not like bloggers or folks writing a letter to the editor.  (although bloggers have been sude for printing lies) They are expected to be factual in their reporting.  They have a lot of leeway in opinion pieces, but they are not supposed to knowingly print lies or misrepresent facts.  Kory’s recent involvement in the Avaaz petition and interference is a good example of media crossing not only an ethical line, but a legal one as well.

Consider how ridiculous Don Martin, for example, would sound ranting on about free speech if he decided to knowingly print a lie.  The public has certain expectations when it comes to journalism which is why journalists are supposed to verify their sources and information carefully before printing anything.  That they can be sued for printing lies and misinformation is telling.

Schneidereit indulges in more manipulation of facts by leaving out important information:

Yes, it’s true the potential new channel has Kory Teneycke, Stephen Harper’s former director of communications and now Quebecor’s new vice-president of business development, behind the application to the CRTC.  So what? No law forbids conservatives from starting TV news channels.      

That’s right, no law forbids that, but the laws do forbid political interference, partisanship, and massive conflict of interest.  Which is probably why Schneidereit chooses to leave out the very important fact of Harper’s involvement from the start in his meeting with Kory and Fox News months ago.  He knows that’s what many people object to, it’s been stated often enough in the news.


But the fact remains there’s no reason, other than partisanship, for Sun TV News, which aims to launch in 2011, to not get a licence. The CRTC decision on a licence is expected in November.

OK.  Really.  This is where sane people shake their heads at the utter audacity and hypocrisy of rabid right wingers.  Yes, there clearly is partisanship at play, but can anyone with more functioning brain cells than a flat worm not see that the partisan colour here is blue?  Fox Fiction is run by Harper’s ex director of communications, is beyond any doubt devoted to promoting Harper’s image and themes and denigrating anything the opposition comes up with.

And there’s that very problematic and telling meeting of Steve’s with Fox News.

Keep telling your lies, you Harper whores.  And we’ll keep exposing them.

**update: go to Unrepentent Hippie here, comment section for stageleft's comments on licensing and funding.  Clears up a lot of confusion.

"The current government doesn't want to do anything,"

Environment Canada spokesperson Mark Johnson said in an email to The Hill Times last week that the federal department has been closely watching the U.S. discussions on climate change legislation and regulations.  Prime Minister Stephen Harper's (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) government has pinned its climate change strategy on the backs of the United States.

"It's quite clear that at this point the U.S. Senate is not prepared to proceed with a cap-and-trade in the U.S. on a comprehensive basis, and our policy remains that without a U.S. cap-and-trade policy we are not prepared to implement one in Canada either," ...Prentice (said).  The environment and the economy are inextricably linked across the 49th parallel so both countries must work together and have similar policies to effectively fight climate change, said Mr. Prentice. Otherwise, one country could lose its competitive edge to the other, economically.

Well, not really.  That’s only true if we keep looking to developing the oil sands in a bid to give us such an edge.  As the impact of climate change is felt globally, more countries are facing the reality that something needs to be done to curb emissions, and that developing new technologies with this in mind means big money.  Canada is failing to look ahead at what the world will be demanding as is missing an opportunity to develop and market new technology.

"It sends a strong signal throughout the economy," said ( Ian Bruce, a climate change specialist). "As polluting technology becomes more expensive, green solutions become more affordable. Investments shift toward cleaner and safer sources of energy."  Canada could be a "build-it" nation in finding solutions to the climate change problem, he said. "But we risk losing out on these opportunities if we continue to delay action."

Our anti-science government, however would rather keep sucking up the remains of the very dinosaurs they don’t believe in regardless of longer term effects.  Short sighted as always, and denying what even the layperson knows about the cause and effect of relentlessly pumping carbon dioxide into a closed system, they pretend to give a damn to cater to voters but use excuse after excuse to avoid tackling climate change.  Two years ago, the excuse was why should developed countries do anything unless the Chinese agree to cut emissions?  Can’t be saying that anymore:

While South Korea, the European Union and China set aside upwards of 37.8 per cent of their economic stimulus plans for climate change investment, Canada's plan contained a mere 8.3 per cent, or $2.6-billion U.S. of $31.8-billion US, according to a February 2009 HSBC report.
So now that the Tea Party in the US has succeeded in stalling progress on this issue in the US, the Steve party of Canada is using a new excuse: no point doing anything unless the Americans do.

At the very least, the Steve government could be lobbying the US for change, just as they saw fit to pressure other countries about the seal ban, about allowing asbestos to be sold with no warning labels,  and speaking against the international Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

Harper's government does not speak out in favour of change because it doesn't want to act on climate change.

"The current government doesn't want to do anything," (Matthew Paterson, a University of Ottawa professor specializing in climate change politics) said. "I think there is a deal of evidence that they're hiding behind the Americans."

And when the US finally decides to act, Harper, if he’s still PM, will come up with yet another excuse not to.  Hell, he’ll probably start sending out his little mouth pieces to lobby other countries against change.  Canada and the world will feel the negative effects of Steve long, long after he is gone.

Misleading headline

Bureaucrats spent $178,000 in last-ditch effort to stop seal ban

Should say “Harper patronage appointee and mouthpiece porks out on taxpayers’ tab.”

The biggest spender and abuser of public funds listed in this article is Loyola Sullivan, “Ambassador of Fisheries Conservation”.

That would be this fellow:

Now in his latest environmentally unfriendly move we find ourselves paying the tab for Canada’s newly minted “Ambassador of Fisheries Conservation”. A patronage appointment that’s sure to be a win, win for the Conservatives.

...Anyone who saw the press conference last Thursday will no doubt have noticed that it was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter McKay, who made the big announcement about this new “Ambassadorship”, not the Fisheries Minister, which would have been the logical choice. This wasn’t accidental. Foreign Affairs took the lead, with the Fisheries Minister bringing up the rear, because Ottawa wanted to send a clear message to our trading partners around the world that it was business as usual in Canada. It was also meant to ensure that the new Ambassador clearly understood what the Minister of Fisheries already knows. Nothing is done in the fisheries portfolio without the explicit blessing of the Foreign Affairs office.

...We won’t hear anything from Loyola Sullivan again until the proverbial crap hits the fan and Harper, McKay and Hearn need a sacrificial lamb to feed to the masses.

I doubt Harper expected Sullivan  himself would make some of that shit hit the fan.  Sullivan and his senior adviser accounted for all but $30,000 of the expenses, most incurred by Sullivan who stayed in five star hotels and managed to squeeze in the air fare for his personal holiday to Dublin.  Critics are saying that the money was a huge waste considering the powerful opposition to the hunt.  Sullivan wasn’t likely to sway opponents with expensive lunches paid for by us.

And did the nasty bureaucrats decide on their own to defend the seal hunt?

Harper Government Will Defend Canada’s Humane and Sustainable Seal Hunt on the World Stage

The Government of Canada today expressed its deep disappointment, concern, and opposition to the vote by the European Parliament to move towards a ban on products from Canada’s humane and sustainable seal hunt.  "The decision by the European Parliament lacks any basis in facts,” said the Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans...I once again caution my European counterparts about the dangers of pursuing politically motivated bans on other countries’ traditional industries. Our government will stand up for the jobs and communities that depend on the seal hunt.”

“If the EU imposes a trade ban on seal products it must contain an exemption for any country, like Canada, that has strict guidelines in place for humane and sustainable sealing practices," said the Honourable Stockwell Day..."If there is no such acceptable exemption, Canada will challenge the ban at the World Trade Organization (WTO).”

Ministers Shea and Day announced that the Government of Canada will continue to aggressively counter the misinformation campaign being waged by professional anti-seal hunt lobby groups in order to ensure that the decision of the Council would be based on accurate information.

Steve the fiscally responsible economist speaks for himself.

When my mother sent me to the store to buy a quart of milk, I was just the delivery person.  She deiced how the money was to be spent. 

You appointed him to this bull-shit office and you give all the orders, so you own this waste, Steve.

We don’t report news, we make it...up!

Looks like Fox Fiction North is going to keep many bloggers and journalists busy exposing their lies and ideological maneuvering.  Too bad.  Those of us who understand that knowing the truth is essential to shaping policy would really rather be helping Canada and the world move ahead in whatever way we can.

         (terrific FNN photo by Alison)

Meanwhile, we have this daily distraction to deal with because the lies cannot go unchallenged.  Although Fox Fiction reads like the National Enquirer and holds the same disrespect for truth, it can actually cause harm to a great many people because it is interested in more than selling papers.  It seeks to change our beliefs, laws, and government.

So pathetically inept and laughable are its main ad men that most of us can’t help but use humour to counter their ridiculous spins and lies, but we need to make it very clear that our opposition isn’t simply to the korn-kob hilarity of the corporation that eats away at audience’s intellect and encourages their baser natures like a cheezie talk show feeding us the worst of humanity day after day as entertainment.

Fox Fiction backs a political ideology and narrow, corporate interests.  Where it fails in truth and convincing arguments, it hopes to conquer through massive exposure so that the lie is heard so often, people stop questioning.  It doesn’t report news, it decides what ideological product it wants to push, then fashions stories with that in mind.

It is little more than a huge marketing agency using all of its resources to convince us to buy a very harmful product.

That’s why it is important to keep countering and exposing Kory & Co’s lies.  Allison shows us another one where Kory brazenly claims Fox Fiction never applied for the A license.  Wow.  Makes you want to shake your head violently because you begin to doubt if he and his kind actually exist or are leftover, ghostly emanations of some long gone universe that couldn’t hold itself together because it make no fucking sense.

What I found funny and more than a little scary was this quote from Serge Sasseville, Quebecor's VP of corporate affairs (highlights mine):

"We'll get exactly what we're asking for at the end of the day.  We'll ask the CRTC exactly the same conditions we've been asking with a Category 1, and we're pretty confident we'll get it. You can ask for a must-offer even for other categories. It's only labeling. You can call a cat a dog but at the end of the day it's still a cat."

Cats that aren’t dogs:

"We are not nor have we ever asked for mandatory carriage of this station where Canadians would have to be obliged to pay.”

Stephane Dion is not a leader.

Ignatieff: just visiting.

The gun registry is useless.

Canadians don’t want the long form census.

Crime has gone up.

"Canadians are going to face a pretty stark choice. The next election will be a choice between a Parliament with a majority made up of a Liberal-NDP-Bloc Québécois coalition, or it will be a stable majority for our Conservative government." - Harper

While Fox Fiction knows that at the end of the day, cats are still cats no matter how often you try to label them as dogs, they want us to purchase those very dogs by convincing us that they are cats.  Just like they want us to believe a marketing company is really a news outlet.

*no disrespect to dogs, here.  I love the little guys.  Which is why I don't want them passed off as cats.

Vampire? Maybe. Definitely not human.

Teneycke is a real piece of work, alright.

A Good Line

Saw this in the comment section of a G&M story about Stevie trying to put the big coalition scare on us:

I Am Not Your Sweet Babboo writes (bold put in by moi):

Article: "And the Conservative Leader is already test-driving what will doubtless become a relentless message: that Canada is really a two-party state, with the Conservatives on one side and a “coalition,” as he calls it, of the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois on the other."

And here is the perfect way to frame the response and therefore the election campaign:

The Conservatives on one side and the rest of Canada on the other.

Slam dunk. Goodbye, Harper.

Simple, direct.  I like it.

Where three of Harper’s whores take on a senior woman…

…and lose.

Well, in fairness, that senior woman is Margaret Atwood.

Taylor writes better than most blindly partisan CPC supporters which is why he is viewed by many left-of-CON bloggers with contempt.  He knows enough about bad rhetoric to identify it when it suits his purpose but engages in himself quite liberally when he is trying to endorse a Harper & Co. lie or attack anyone left-of-Steve & Steve.

Well, through twitter sparring with Atwood, I think he drew more ridicule than contempt.  Regardless of how one feels about Atwood’s perspectives, they really need to acknowledge her mastery of language and her respect for her audience  – she doesn’t use cheap rhetorical tricks to fool people into thinking she’s right.

So it really isn’t a fair fight when a CON-whore like Taylor goes up against a master writer like Atwood.  She not only out-classes him in skill and knowledge, but she’s not playing the whore like Taylor who offers lies and fantasies in order to please his John (or Steve, in this case).  Truth has a better chance than forced arguments.

Speaking of prostitution, it’s disappointing to see Akin engaged in that trade as well.

Atwood said her objection isn't to Sun TV News, but that it would be paid for from cable fees and that the "CRTC chair should be arms' length, not Harper tool."

David Akin, Sun Media's Ottawa bureau chief, tweeted back that he thought Atwood was "smarter than that." "So disappointing you'd put your name to anti-free speech movement," Akin wrote.

"Free speech does not mean under-the-carpet deals that would force people to pay for Fox out of cable fees," Atwood responded. 

Anti-free speech movement?  And conveniently ignoring Atwood’s statement that her reason for signing was due to concerns about political interference?  Really, David, I thought you were smarter than that.

Another Harper whore tries to hook the lady, but she easily evades him:

@brianlilley: Any chance you are up for an interview on the petition today? M.sez: Tx but I am not the originator.You should interview them

(Atwood, however,  did grant the Globe and mail an interview.  I guess she doesn’t mind real journalists)

What Atwood said:

“Of course Fox & Co. can set up a channel or whatever they want to do, if it's legal etc.,” she told The Globe and Mail in an email. “But it shouldn't happen this way. It's like the head-of-census affair – gov't direct meddling in affairs that are supposed to be arm's length – so do what they say or they fire you.  “It's part of the ‘I make the rules around here,’ Harper-is-a-king thing,” she wrote...

Ms. Atwood's concern is not with the network’s proposed agenda. Instead, she’s worried about potential interference by the Harper government.  “Some people signing the petition object to the expected content. I object to the process,” she told The Globe. “It's the [prime ministerial] pressure on yet another civil servant that bothers me. These folks are supposed to be working for the taxpayer, not the PM.”

Like many Tories, Mr. Taylor also takes issue with the government funding of the CBC. As such, he asked Ms. Atwood: “Is the CBC and its compulsory funding essential to ‘free speech’ or against it in your view?”

But the author held her own, firing back with a quip about Munir Sheikh, who resigned as head of Statistics Canada over the government’s changes to the census.  “Naughty Stephen,” she said. “We're not talking about the CBC but about the coercion of an arm's length person, like Census head.”

Akin and Taylor - very, very small men, telling whatever lie comes to mind to deceive the public in order to trick them into buying a crappy product. 

I’ll close with one of my favourite Margaret Atwood quotes:

"Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results."
— Margaret Atwood (Surfacing)

More from the Flawed and Disordered party of Harper

There they go again…standing behind our brave men in uniform:

The federal government has lost its third attempt to delay a court ruling from taking effect next month that would allow RCMP officers to form a union. ..The ruling leaves the federal government with little more than a month to pass legislation that would allow Mounties to form a union, or it could go back to court to try to extend the already lengthy legal battle.

Those fiscally responsible, cop longing CONs!  Spending tax dollars to thumb their noses at the RCMP and the federal court.


In an April 2009, decision Judge MacDonnell cleared the way for a union. He ruled that a section of RCMP regulations that did not allow an independent group to engage in collective bargaining on behalf of officers violated the Charter of Rights.

Oh, that damn, troublesome Charter of Rights!  And really, what an affront that our brave men in serge should actually think it enshrines their rights! 

Yo!  Elliot!  Earn your partisan appointment!

The Flawed and Disordered Party of Harper

“Sorry Gary, but that's just crazy talk about our police.”

Below are parts of an email exchange between CON MP Garry Breitkreuz and NDP MP Charlie Angus concerning scrapping the long gun registry.  I have to disagree with the journalist’s conclusion that ” Angus may be on the verge of changing his mind and voting to kill the registry.”  I see quite the opposite in Angus’ response, but you decide:

From: Breitkreuz, Garry - M.P.
To: Angus, Charlie - Personal
…I can appreciate that the NDP M.P.s who supported Bill C-391 are now under tremendous pressure to flip-flop by supporting the motion to kill the bill on September 22. This is just a short note to remind you that nothing has changed since you supported Bill C-391 on November 4, 2009.

…In light of the Liberal leader's decision to whip his caucus into killing Bill C-301 on September 22, your voice is even more important…you will be representing them with pride when you vote against the motion on September 22.

From:Angus, Charlie - Personal
To: Breitkreuz, Garry - M.P.
...  I was more than a little surprised to hear from you about the registry, again. Its interesting that this is the only rural issue you ever seem to want to talk to us about. You and your government have hardly been collegial with rural New Democrats on addressing the concerns of our citizens.

… I supported getting Bill C-391 to committee because I felt rural Canadians had legitimate concerns about the costs of the registry, its effectiveness and whether or not it is used effectively by police. I was really hoping we could all work together as Parliamentarians, listen to the problems with the registry, hear from various witnesses and finally get answers to these fundamental questions. Unfortunately, your government has fought against information getting out, actively suppressed departmental reports and publically attacked police officers who dare disagree with you.

But I do appreciate your letter. Thanks to your opinion piece, I learned that the Harper government believes the real reason police are "strident" on this issue is because they dont want Canadians to own guns. And you seem to claim the real reason police want to keep the registry is not for public safety, but so they someday will be able to burst into family homes and seize grampa's 20 gauge. Sorry Gary, but that's just crazy talk about our police.

…So Gary, let's be frank: we're just not on the same page here at all. Rural New Democrats have brought forward legitimate concerns of rural residents and are looking to have those issues addressed. The Harper Conservatives, on the other hand, would rather try and just stir up rural Canadians with all manner of wild and crazy conspiracy theories about our local police forces. And just for the sake of a quick fundraising buck and some negative partisan advertising.

Thanks for the advice, but no thanks.

We should hear from elected MPs.  Keep it up, guys.

Praise to Angus for his integrity and his kick-ass response.