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

Not just a Crime Minister, but a dumb Crime Minister

If you’re going to set someone up to take the fall for your crime, you should choose a source not obviously connected to you to present the fabrication. (emphasis mine)

Mr. Sona has told former co-workers he learned from the Sun News Network that he was being fingered by Conservative sources in connection with the phony calls. Friends say the ex-aide was sitting in his office in late February when Sun News broke a story that Tories had tied him to “a robo-calling scandal.”   The Sun News Network was the first media outlet to link Mr. Sona to the controversy. 

Anonymous Conservatives have repeatedly fingered Michael Sona, singling out him alone among a group of workers on the campaign of Guelph candidate Matty Burke, but a source says Sona had no reason to believe Elections Canada was interested in him until he was named by unidentified senior Tories in a report on Sun News Network the day the story broke.

 ...Sona wasn’t even a person of interest to Elections Canada until he was cited in media reports, according to the source. Al Mathews, the former RCMP inspector leading the probe, did not speak to Sona until after the 23-year-old left Adams’ office.

...As recently as Monday night, Conservative sources were pushing Sona in connection to the Guelph robocalls. A CTV News report cited unnamed Conservatives saying Sona had owned up to the calls amid reports that the investigation had traced an Internet Protocol address used by “Poutine” to a home in Guelph, Ontario.

You should make your scapegoat someone who has the abilities needed to commit your crime.

A source close the investigation said Tuesday that it seems unlikely that a 23-year-old, acting alone, would have been able to pull off the fairly complicated “Pierre Poutine” caper, recording a bilingual, legitimate-sounding message purportedly from Elections Canada, setting up a screen of two false identities using a prepaid cellphone and credit card, and expertly covering his electronic tracks.

And you should make sure that the poor schmuck you are setting up had opportunity to commit your vile crime -

The Conservatives keep track of supporters and other voters through a massive database called the constituency information management system (CIMS), which was created and expanded under Stephen Harper’s leadership of the party. Access to CIMS is controlled through personal accounts with passwords. One person familiar with the local Guelph campaign estimated that perhaps 10 to 15 people working there had personal CIMS accounts. “Everything is logged,” a Conservative source said. 

Someone familiar with the investigation said that CIMS records indicate Michael Sona, then-communications director to candidate Marty Burke, never used his CIMS account to draw down lists of voters during the campaign. 

Scum Sun Media and CTV News should be forced to reveal the names of the “unidentified senior Tories” who pointed their fingers at Sona.  

Toews cries and threatens a guy who legally tweeted truths about Mr. Family Values and is forcing him to go before a committee.  “Senior Tories” make up lies about a guy that put his life in a downward spiral, Sun Media pushes the lies, and they get paid.

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 - 

Fetuses as human beings, the long gun registry, and Dear Leader

In April, MP Woodworth will ask  “Parliament to create a committee of politicians whose task it will be to review a law that stops short of defining unborn children as "human beings."  A committee of MPs has agreed to give Woodworth at least one hour of debate sometime in April. He will receive a second hour of debate sometime either in late spring or early fall.”

Why would harper allow this? A few reasons:

1.  Two of the biggest fund raisers for the CONs have been killing off the big, bad long gun registry and the equally vile and dangerous CBC.  With the registry gone and massive cuts in the works for CBC, the CON base has to be re-injected with CON-rabies or some virus that similarly keeps them mindlessly frothing at the mouth.  It also needs to make people want to donate money.  Promises of removing women’s right to control their own reproductive choices and their own bodies will do both.

 

2.  Stop the erosion of their base: Bill C-30 angered even some hard core CONs.  Many are very involved in social media and understand how that spy Bill would endanger their online freedom.  OAS reforms suggested by the CONs hits one of the right’s core group of supporters – older Canadians.  Show them another shiny object, the kind they easily get worked up over, and send signals that the CONs really do intend to regulate women’s wombs.

3.  Any big topic (and abortion debate always draws big crowds) is welcomed by harper right now because it takes away from discourse surrounding the very serious allegations of criminal activities committed by his party during the last (and possibly earlier) elections.

Before anyone thinks I’m being extreme in what I write below, I am not getting into the “what ifs” such as contraceptives except as they could be affected directly by such a re-definition of a human being.

If a fetus is defined as a human being, then it is entitled to the same rights.  That means if a fetus dies, there will have to be an investigation to determine cause of death.  

Let’s look at what defining a fetus as a human being means:

1.   Anyone deliberately causing the termination of the fetus would be guilty of murder including those who aided or enabled the termination.  Anyone trying to cover it up after the fact could also be charged.  

Many anti-choicers think this is a good idea, but read on – 

2.  Anyone causing the termination of a pregnancy could be charged with a range of crimes from neglect leading to death or manslaughter.  

Now listen up, you anti-choicers.  Even you men:

If a pregnant woman miscarries, the termination would have to be treated as the death of a human being and as such would have to be investigated.  A cause of death would have to be determined.  Many people are saying this will set women up for charges of manslaughter if they didn’t maintain perfect health and care throughout the pregnancy.  Yes, we already see that happening in the States.  Did the woman drink alcohol or take in any possibly harmful substances?  Did she eat a healthy diet, get enough rest, enough exercise? Did she take measures to reduce stress, to control her weight in a healthy way?  Did she do everything she possibly could to avoid harm to the fetus?  Ignorance is no excuse because it is her responsibility to protect the fetus just as it is her responsibility to protect a child.

But not every unintentional death is the result of the woman's behaviour.  Did hubby provide healthy food throughout the pregnancy?  Did he intercede if he suspected or knew the woman was doing something that could risk the pregnancy?  Did he do everything he could to reduce stress for her?  Did he make sure she got enough sleep?  Did he take on a significant amount of household chores to ease her physical burden?  Did he take over tasks that involved the use of chemical cleaners?  Did he babysit the other kids and teach them not to jump on mommy’s belly?  Was he extra careful during sex?

And you bosses – did you accommodate her properly during the pregnancy?  Did you make sure she wasn’t handling chemicals, changing toner on machines, exposed to machines or equipment that could harm the pregnancy?  Did you make sure not to let her give into typical job pressures of long hours?

And you doctors – better make sure your insurance covers the many, many things you could be sued for in wrongful death.

Now the really tricky stuff that still would absolutely have to be covered if a fetus is a human being:

1.  How can the legal system which must now protect all  fetuses know if a woman is pregnant?  Are we to trust women to report every pregnancy?  Not likely, since we already know that many believe abortion is not murder and history has shown us some get so desperate that they will obtain one illegally.  But the law has to protect all fetuses just as it has to protect all human beings, so the only sure answer is to have women go to registered clinics for a pregnancy test every month for as long as they have even one viable egg left in their government regulated ovaries.

If this isn’t done, a woman could sneak off and have an abortion.

Even REAL women, virtuous ones who would never ever deliberately end a pregnancy could accidentally kill a fetus if they don’t know they are pregnant and where’s the justice for Little Fetus?  What if the woman doesn’t know she is pregnant and decides to go on birth control, or ties one on, or goes bungie-jumping?  What if her hubby pours her an extra glass of champagne on their anniversary?

2.  Folks can’t use the argument that they didn’t know the woman was pregnant because if a fetus is a human being, it is entitled to the same rights as a human being, and people should know that it’s possible that there could be a little fetus growing away.  The only way to be sure there’s no little potential homicide victim hiding in a womb is when the woman starts her period and for a short time after that, so except for that week or so, every woman with even a single viable egg left would have to act – and be treated as – a pregnant woman just in case.  The only time she can be somewhat neglected and neglectful is when she’s on the rag – which is just fine because who wants anything to do with a menstruating  woman anyway?  But she can’t drop all of her responsibilities to the potential fetuses and their potential rights since drugs (and that includes the ones to curb the menstrual pains) stay in her system for some time, or can cause damage.  

Some people will say this is all ridiculous and that the first point – deliberately terminating a pregnancy is the only one that could come about (because it’s really the only one supporters of such a fetus rights  Bill really want), but that would not reflect what the Bill legally defines: Fetus= Human Being.  Everything a person can now be held responsible for a fetus when it comes to caring for, or harming (intentionally or otherwise), or killing, or neglecting just as they now are for a human being.  

3.  Look at all the points above and realize that this applies not only to the death of a fetus, but to its development as well.  If a child is born with a disability or illness, the mother and anyone who had any impact on the fetus would be legally responsible for any permanent or long term ill effects the fetus suffered.

Stephen Woodworth’s bull-shit argument:

The review, he argues, is needed because the law is based on a 400-year-old definition of human being.  "If a child five minutes before birth can be defined as not a human being, then the question is who's next?" he argued.

What a load of crap.  What a dishonest argument.  Four hundred years ago, some races weren’t considered human beings in some lands.  Neither were women.  Their rights were moved forward at great cost to many.  To imply that anyone now considered a human being could be reclassified as something less because in Canada, our government hasn’t declared a fetus as a human being is...insane.  But I do consider the source.  Especially since it comes from the same group of people who largely want to bring back the death penalty.  And who think it’s ok to fire warning shots over people’s heads.  And who believe everyone should have the right to carry concealed, unregistered firearms.

I don,t for a moment believe Woodworth’s Bill is mean in anyway to protect groups of people from being declared non-human.

Just a refresher because we always need to examine harper’s stance on anything that has to do with anything anywhere at all times:

Harper’s denials:

"A Conservative government will not be bringing forward, will not be supporting, and will not be debating the abortion laws in this country. I've been clear on that and, frankly, I think that's put the matter to rest." - Harper (January 11, 2006)

"Very clearly I am against reopening that debate," he said. "That is my position, now and in the past five years as well, and as long as I am prime minister, we will not reopen the debate on abortion. We will leave the law as it stands."  - Harper  (April 21, 2011)

 “The Prime Minister has been very clear, our government will not reopen this debate.” -  Justice Minister Rob Nicholson (Feb. 28, 2012)

Harper runs the show.  We know that.  He thinks he can reassure the majority of Canadians – the more sane ones… 

h/t BCL

…while appealing to the rabid nut jobs.

He’s a liar who has no respect at all for Canadians.  We aren’t stupid enough to be swayed by semantics.   He can’t claim that a motion to discuss the fetus as a human being does not re-open abortion debate since abortion is termination of a fetus and legal because a fetus is not a human being under our laws.

I don’t think he intends to get into a full blown debate right now since he still hasn’t the extent of control over Parliament, the public service, communications, the legal system, and media as he wants, but he’ll let this one float near the top, run targeted fund raising campaigns on it, and let the discussion become more frequent and mainstream as time goes on.  Eventually, if he holds onto power long enough, he will have to introduce it or risk fragmenting his party as it not only moves further right, but forces Canada along with it.  The further right our laws go, the further right they will be pushed.  It is extremely naive and dangerous to believe harper will never re-open the abortion debate simply because most Canadians would rebel.  Long form census, Bill C-30, omnibus crime bill, government sanctioned torture, illegal election activities...

Stand on guard for Canada.

This is very telling

Most of us are by now aware of harper’s big denial -

Harper issued his strongest denial yet that his party had nothing to do with the robocalls. "The Conservative Party can say absolutely, definitively, it has no role in any of this," Harper said Wednesday in response to a question from NDP Leader Nycole Turmel. "The honourable leader of the NDP should provide her party's information to Elections Canada," Harper said. "Otherwise, I think we just conclude this is simply a smear campaign without any basis at all."

But what’s this?

A spokesman for Harper says he was referring to the Conservatives' national campaign, as opposed to individual local campaigns.

In a party where no high level spokesperson issues statements without having them vetted by steve, why offer this clarification up?

With more and more allegations coming from individual ridings and Elections Canada indicating it has enough credible evidence to warrant an investigation, it may be that harper wants to protect himself from illegal election activity that he knows went on.  By clarifying that the federal campaign is clean, but not defending the ridings, he sets himself above the scandal…or so he thinks.  I don’t think that’ll fly, though.  While from a legal perspective he may protect himself with this tactic, as leader of his party, he won’t be able to shake responsibility in the House and with voters.  Either he knew about the activities and allowed them or even encouraged them, or he has practically no control over how his MPs and campaign people act.  Either way, he is not fit to lead a party, let alone a country.

More interesting news today – RMG is looking like it may have been used in a shady fashion as well, and there are not allegations of more in-and-out activities, this time in QC.  Even CPC candidates are talking:

Les dépenses électorales de certains candidats conservateurs du Québec à la dernière élection générale soulèvent des questions. Au moins une direction de campagne locale admet s'être fait demander par le bureau national du Parti conservateur de payer une firme d'appels sans en retirer quoi que ce soit en retour. Une autre s'interroge sur la valeur réelle de la dépense. 

Briefly – several CPC candidates were billed for using RMG call services, but their riding campaign never used the services.  The money simply went through them to provide RGM services to the federal campaing.  That’ll make it a fair bit harder for harper to isolate himself from riding activities.

If your French is good enough, read the whole article.  Pretty damaging stuff.  I’m sure the Anglo papers will pick up on this soon.

Beyond any arguments or spin

The Conservative Party does not need to look into "robocalls" made during the last federal election any further, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says.  "It's certainly not something our party condones."  But he told CBC News in New Glasgow, N.S., that he believes the calls directing people to wrong or non-existent polling places were isolated incidents.

Isolated, co-ordinated, funded, well connected incidents in which the perpertrators had access not only to call centres and robo services, but to voters’ lists and could sign off on the expense to the party.

I’m sure the CONs don’t have to look further into this because they know what went on.  It’s the rest of Canada that needs to have the truth brought out.

Ibbitson and Nanos think harper – and that means the Harper party – can survive this if he manages to avoid being directly linked to this very serious scandal.  I disagree.  Look what Adscam did to Paul Martin and the Liberals even when he chose to have his party investigated by an impartial body.  Martin was not found to be involved, but the taint of corruption clung to the entire party.

This may be the one harper can’t shake.  It goes beyond what even the most cynical people excuse of politicians: lining their pockets, favouring pals, abusing public funds.  This hits our sense of what is fair.  We don’t like cheaters.  They leave a really bad taste in our mouth.  We never really trust them after that.  And this goes beyond cheating.  It is the same criminal behavior corrupt governments in other countries engage in to impose their self-serving will on those they are supposed to represent.  Hell, we send observers to such countries to monitor their elections so that they don’t engage in voter suppression.  We send our troops to other countries to fight regimes that practice such corruption.

Pat Martin sees why this could be the scandal Canadians won’t ignore:

“The number of indiscretions has reached critical mass but the difference between this issue and previous indiscretions is that it’s so easy to understand. This is an issue of basic fairness. The in and out scandal was a complicated financial transaction that takes awhile to explain. This one, you know, any school kid could understand. It’s wrong to lie to people for your own self interest. It sullies our democracy. It speaks to a conspiracy to defraud.”

Lawrence Martin also sees the growing “number of indiscretions” as a major problem underlying harper’s and the CONs’ ability to come out of this one relatively unharmed. 
He gives a good list,  Worth the read, to remind us, since there have been so many.

Using Del Mastro and Airshow as spokespersons on this doesn’t help, either.  Del Mastro always carries that bully, oily sheen that naturally causes many to feel the snake oil salesman/repo man has been sent to deal with customers, and Petey?  He can barely cope with the barge of accusations directed at him.  Having someone who is more and more viewed as a liar and an elitist who uses public servants to attempt to sully the reputation of his critics is hardly someone who is credible in saying there’s nothing to see here, folks, we’re just ever so honest and ethical.

The biggest thing harper has going for him is time.  With a majority, he can hope that the economy tanks so much, people will forget about corrupt election practices, but that’ll only work if Canadians keep believing, against all evidence, that the CONs are the best ones to get us out of the mess.  And I don’t think that lie will hold much longer.

Or harper can distract us with another war, but with the economy as it is, will that really work to his benefit?  Again, I doubt it.  Failure in Afghanistan will be even more apparent over the next few years as all Canada has sacrificed in lives and money is shown to have accomplished little long term. 

And there’s the CONs themselves who simply won’t use that time to their advantage.  They have proven in this past year that a majority has snapped the collar on their arrogance and they seem to think they are above all laws.  That simply can’t hold when the rest of Canadians face job cuts, tax increases, threats to benefits and OAS, cuts to services.
You can’t build a stone mansion on a makeshift, wooden foundation.