Friday night ode to stevie, petey, julian, and rona: lies & liars

oh, hell - the whole damn party for backing the BS.  Here's for the lot of you lying scumbags as you settle in this Good Friday to remember how your god gave his only begotten son to save you from your sins - sins such as lying to the great detriment of those you are sworn to serve.  You may be off the hook in your mythical afterlife, but here, reality rules.

Big thanks to Den Tandt for using the “L” word.  And drawing back stevie’s fig leaf for all to see what kind of a man he really is.  For those who didn’t know what’s been obvious to many of us for years.

UK politics, but very appropriate to current Canadian politics

Better go to confession, Julian

Seeing as to how Fantino is failing in his holy anddecent mission to equip the armed forces…

In  November 2011, I wrote "watch for the cancellation or shelving of the F-35 as harper now blames the Liberals" for opening the competition."

Wow.  The gung-ho war on  everything take no prisoners use support the troops party of steve is in “retreat?”  It is “publicly backtracking?”  

Thomas Walkom says in his article that this flimsy acknowledgement by Fantino that the crusade for the F-35 may not take the field is harper admitting he was wrong.  I think not.  The Crime Minister will never admit he was wrong.  Never.  He will continue to blame the Liberals.  That’s a no-brainer.

Still, it makes me enjoy a wicked thought.  The Liberals, NDP, and Bloc could just toss back steve’s vile speaking points at the CONs rather than write their own, but they won’t, and in reality I am glad for that. 

But let us indulge in a bit of fiendish fun:

“Our experts have put out their detailed figures and everything we've seen is within those figures and their contingencies — the contingencies that have been allowed," Harper said. (April 26, 2011)

"A lot of the developmental costs you're reading in the United States, the contract we've signed shelters us from any increase in those kinds of costs. We're very confident of our cost estimates and we have built in some latitude, some contingency in any case. So we are very confident we are within those measures." (harper, April 8, 2011)

My favorite:

“We will purchase the F-35,” Fantino asserted. “We’re on record. We’re part of the crusade. We’re not backing down.” (November 2011)

And (note the date!)–

"Canada has set a budget for replacement aircraft and we have been clear that we will operate within that budget," Fantino said in a statement. (March 2, 2012)

Baird must now acknowledge that the harper party doesn’t support the troops -

 “…there is nodenying that the new jet fighters that our air force so desperately needs to replace the CF-18s, which will be 40 years old, will have a price…“Let me say this,” Mr. Baird went on, warming up now. “The men and women in the Canadian armed forces are prepared to pay the ultimate price. They are prepared to sacrifice. They are brave. What do they count on? They count on the government to provide them with the tools they need. If that means it is going to be $50 a year or $1 a week to provide for Canadian sovereignty and to give our men and women the tools they need to do the job, it is a price that we are prepared to pay.” (March 10, 2011)

Not so much today, eh, Baird?

We musn’t leave out Airshow:

“We have been clear that we will operate within that budget,” (MacKay) said in a speech to the Conference of Defence Associations annual meeting. “And we will give our air men and women the best available aircraft, which I believe is the fifth-generation, F-35 Lightning II.” (February 4, 2012)

Right, Pete.  Run and get DND to dig up some way to further blame the Liberals for your failure to give the beloved troops “the best available aircraft.”

And a few photos for our pleasure - 

Seriously harper...give it up

Several clichés come to mind concerning the ridiculous efforts by harper & co. to justify and defend F-35 plans: not a leg to stand on; on shaky ground; ill advised; the wheels have fallen off the wagon; that dog won’t hunt...

But Fantino came up with the perfect word (emphasis mine) -

"We will purchase the F-35," Fantino asserted. "We're on record. We're part of the crusade. We're not backing down."

Crusade:  
1. often Crusade Any of the military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th,  and 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.
2. A holy war undertaken with papal sanction.
3. A vigorous concerted movement for a cause or against an abuse.

Uh-huh....that’s how I want my government to decide how it’s going to spend billions of dollars and make decisions on military spending.  Sure.  And I really want those decisions to be mindlessly inflexible as well.  I mean, we’re on a crusade, after all.  Don’t question, just do it and never, ever back down.  Even if all evidence says you should -

If Washington pulls the plug on its own F-35 plans, it is unclear what will happen to the development timeline for the planes that Canada wants to replace its aging fleet of CF-18 Hornets...Original estimates suggested each plane would cost about $75 million. However, the parliamentary budget officer has suggested the price tag could double, and a report from the Pentagon earlier this year indicated that unforeseen production costs will likely push up the plane's price tag to an unknown sum.

and

Adam Chapnick, a defence studies professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, said a U.S. decision not to go ahead with the F-35 purchase would have a significant impact on Canada.
“The cost would increase dramatically,” he said. “If the United States wasn’t going to use the F-35, then it wouldn’t make as much sense for us to, because part of our goal is to be inter-operable with the United States. So if there’s nothing to be interoperable with, there’s much less incentive to go ahead.”

Maybe the stupidity of the talking points arguments is deliberate.  Really, when you hear something like this despite all logic -

 Fantino: “The only crusade is the crusade to malign a very important asset for our young men and women who actually use the equipment, and also to maintain our Canadian sovereignty as well as creating jobs. The member opposite is stuck in a time warp of useless rhetoric, misinformation and misrepresentation about the benefits to Canada of the F-35 program.”

-  don’t you just want to shake your head and walk away from debate because you just can’t find simple enough terms to explain reality to a party that is so obtuse?

He's been everywhere, man, he's been everywhere

For 30 days Julian Fantino held his tongue, campaigning as the Conservative candidate in the suburban Toronto riding of Vaughan

Actually, harper tied your tongue in a knot, fantino.  But go on...

He had vowed to take the high road during his campaign

Yeah, so high it was outside Earth’s atmosphere...

At 68 years of age, Mr. Fantino now finds himself a rookie MP and will be sitting in the Commons across from the likes of Justin Trudeau, Michael Ignatieff and the rest of the Liberal crew who, he says, made his life miserable.

Boo-fucking hoo...

Cue in the tough guy -

He asserts the Liberals were “desperate” but that he would rather have “faced dangerous people with loaded guns than some of the nonsense” during the campaign.

Because he’s manly, no doubt. 

But he has been taking notes from the CON playbook -

“ I call it the Hitler Theory. You tell a lie often enough you hope that some people will believe it."

(Repeat after me: evul coalition, eul coalition, evul coalition...I believe in me and reject the fearmongering and risky Michael Ignatieff coalition)
(Warning - some people may find the lyrics offensive - but appropriate)

(50% faster than original version) 
“I’ve been as many as 21 days in the witness box in court, being cross-examined by the best lawyers in town. There is no peek-a-boo. ... It was a character assassination.”

So fucking what.

I think O.J. Simpson has you beat.

“You know what, here’s me with 42 years of working night shifts and facing people with loaded guns and dealing with murderers and rapists ... and I get a lecture from a newbie. C’mon.”

So fucking what.

You’re on Parliament’s turf now and yes, the House has become a free-for-all shame but on the Hill, dodging a bullet is a metaphor and you have yet to learn new skills.  Not going to run into a whole lot of murderers and rapists there.

Fantino, on the Hill, you are the newbie.

You seem so stuck on your past career that I doubt you will be open to learning the skills necessary to take on experienced politicians.

You CONs like slogans.  Try this one:

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.