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.

Holy Corrupt Government, Batman!

Damn!  What a couple of weeks!  Even some stevie fans are starting to grumble.

Let’s drag the cesspool and take a look:

Bill C-30 and Towes’ raves

Vikileaks

#TellViEeverything

Bill C-10 continues to make no sense

Seniors can go fuck themselves 'cause they're jut a useless burden and why the hell should we give them money they paid into retirement?

Nicholson wants to bring in the wild, wild west

Airshow MacKay ignores the Public Service Act – again – and uses DND as his personal shit throwing monkey

From fake lakes to fake immigrants and the resurgence of fake Elections Canada calls

Chris Paradis hands out favours to buddies at our expense while putting many people out of work

Tony-sides-with angels-clement is still a monumental moron

Flaherty lies one way then lies the other (or he’s using that broken crystal ball again)

Brian Lilley tries to justify his existence while avoiding top stories that could make Vic and Pete cry and force young CONbots to sing to steve outside his Sussex home and pathetically revives an old story, writing pretty much the same error riddled thing three days in a row.  (because, you know, French people and visible minorities are a whole lot much more scarier than a government that muzzles public servants and scientists, seeks to spy on us at will, denies our very democracy by fixing elections)

And Beloved Leader?  Well none of it is his fault, of course.  Probably Michael Sona just got carried away.

And Parliament wasn’t even sitting this week.  I have a feeling more than a few CONsorts will be putting in serious overtime this weekend.

Women everywhere must be swooning

Thanks for showing us what manliness entails in your world, Flanagan.

Tom Flanagan, a Canadian political science professor and former chief of staff to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, says Wikileaks creator Julian Assange should be killed - and he wants President Obama to order the assassination.

'I think Assange should be assassinated, actually. (laughs) I think Obama should put out a contract or use a drone or something.'  The CBC news host confronted him, saying incredulously, 'that's pretty harsh stuff'.  Flanagan replied:

'Well, I'm feeling pretty manly today…

Trying to get someone else to commit murder for you makes you feel manly.  Well now we know.

Seems this whole vicarious tough guy thing is typical of CONs as well – 

Well, when the safe training myth is shattered, Harper can say he didn’t lie.

The training will take place mostly in classrooms or bases in Kabul and possibly elsewhere. (Emphasis mine)

Nice, wide open door there, and since we don’t have an official opposition at this time, stevo will continue to make the rules and waste precious lives.

Later, Ignatieff was asked by reporters about not having a vote on the issue.  "That's what you have a parliamentary democracy for. We will hold them to account every day in the House of Commons," he said.

Sure you will, Michael.  Just like you did on the economic action plan, the several budgets, the Afghan detainee issue, environmental issues...

I”ll bet steve is real scared.

An aside - this photo of the three stooges delivery the news is unsettling.  I think it’s the pretense at concern in each face as they send more Canadians to face hell.

Susan Riley has a question about Bob Rae

The more we see of Bob Rae -- and we seem to be seeing the Toronto MP a lot lately -- the larger the question looms: Why isn't he the Liberal leader?

No kidding.

I am not happy with Ignatieff, never wanted him as Liberal party leader, and care for him even less for his waffeling and soft stance on human rights issues.  Words are ok, but we need action.  Watching Rae over the past few weeks has given me some hope, though.

By contrast, Rae is funny, self-deprecating, knowledgeable and spontaneous. His criticisms of the Harper government tend not to be shrill, predictable or personal. But they can be heartfelt -- as when he recently denounced those infamous Conservative flyers that imply the Liberals are, at least, sanguine about anti-Semitism. Rae, whose wife and adult children are Jewish, called them "a new kind of gutter politics."

...Rae is also a better performer than Ignatieff in scrums and informal encounters -- more fluent, manifestly more at ease with a range of issues, sure of where he stands, able to acknowledge complexity without looking wishy-washy.

It isn't simply that I think Rae has greater voter appeal but rather that he embodies what a decent politician should be.  Smart, compassionate, honest, and courageous enough to question his own party and its actions.

The Liberal party doesn't tolerate one-person rule, not to the extend the Harper party does, at the very least.  What is often seen as in-fighting (and yes, true in-fighting does occur among the Grits), is sometimes healthy - if somewhat too-public debate.  This is why I find it very encouraging not only to see that the Liberal party has such people within it as Rae, but that he is being given such a high profile lately.  Must be a little scary for Ignatieff.

It is, however, good for the party and will likely draw back people who have been so turned off by the lack of honesty displayed by top politicians and their failure to connect with voters because they simply do not grasp that what most of us want is simply honest, transparent government where the concerns of those politicians are elected to represent are the real driving force behind shaping legislation.

We need to see more of this in practice.  MPs such as Rae and Kennedy not only speaking on behalf of the party, but clear assurances that the Liberal party is not a one man show and is truly made up of the many voices constituents elect.  Voices that are not muzzled, votes that are not forced.

Place these (and there are other good ones in the Liberal party as well) against Harper's usual suspects:

 - 'nuff said!

  - intelligent speaker, unflapable, ouzes integrity.






- intelligent, passionate, lots of integrity, too clean to be a target, calm

- still needs experience, especially in word-crafting to avoid statements that can easily be twisted, but he offers a fresh face representing renewal; intelligent, decent enough speaker, lots of appeal, plenty of well directed passion, oozes integrity


Intelligence opposing CON smirking, taunting, and childish diversions

Integrity opposing CON foot-in-mouth disease

Honesty opposing CON lies and channel changing

And let's not forget the cute factor: