Why is this man smiling?

He’s had a nightmarish couple of weeks in Parliament and in the press with scandal after scandal competing for space on the front page of every national paper.  The talk two days ago leaned heavily toward an almost certain spring election, one in which harper would be placed on the defensive, his very character and judgment under attack.

Never one to pass up an opportunity to use a massive tragedy for his domestic political gain, steve used the Japan disaster to push his own agenda.  That pretty much blew up in his face, showing him to be the heartless, opportunistic bastard that he is.

So why is he smiling?  He gets to use words such as “act of war”; “military operation”; “casualties”; “military action”; “campaigns”...

He gets to hang out with military defense staff, pose for photo ops in from of really fucking cool military equipment, gets to wear military gear.  He gets to has his picture taken next to real world leaders.

Best of all, he gets to play on voter’s emotions by using terms he has no real respect for:

"One either believes in freedom or one just says one believes in freedom," he declared.  "The Libyan people have shown by their sacrifice that they believe in it. Assisting them is a moral obligation upon those of us who profess to believe in this great ideal."


The reality:

...Harper never tried to persuade Canadians to keep combat troops in Afghanistan because of a "moral obligation" to fight for the great ideal of freedom.  It's not too hot, not too cold: the Goldilocks foreign policy. A hawk in opposition, Harper rarely gets too far in front of public opinion, now that he's in government.

The new, militant tone on Libya is a case in point. Did we hear Harper or his ministers baying for the downfall of Gadhafi before the UN decided, after much delay, to use force against him? No. But, now, we hear the ever-cautious Lawrence Cannon, Canada's foreign minister, insisting that "Gadhafi must leave."

So we are expected to forget, for the time being at least, that our own freedoms were brutally and ruthlessly stomped on during the G20, at the Montebello summit, in the perimeter agreement with Obama...

We are supposed to forget, for the time being, at least, that he has such contempt for our rights that his bunch faces contempt charges, is under investigation by Elections Canada, and hired a felon as one of his closest advisors.

We are supposed to forget, for the time being at least, that he suspended Parliament twice to save his own ass, denying Canadians their right to an active government.

We are supposed to forget, for the time being at least, that he gave us the biggest deficit in our country’s history, has spent more of our tax dollars on self-promotion than any other PM, has relentlessly attacked the very independent watchdogs put in place to defend our rights and freedoms.

We are supposed to forget, for the time being at least, that he runs the most secretive government in our history when access to information is essential for citizens to maintain their rights and freedoms.

We are supposed to forget all of this because this self-serving, opportunistic sociopath will play on our mindless, emotional response to war and kicking ass - someone else’s ass.

It’ll most likely work.  At least short term, and that’s all harper cares about - getting through his current crisis.

If Gadhafi is quickly taken out with minimal bloodshed - preferably with most of the blood pouring from Libyans - stevo will come out looking good in the eyes of many Canadians, and all will be forgiven, for the time being at least.  It won’t matter that he didn’t back the invasion until after the Liberals brought it up, and it won’t matter that he waited to see what other countries were doing or that they will likely be the ones determining the outcome.  Harper will do what he always does - take credit for what works out well, and place blame for abysmal failures.

If the Libya mission drags on and kills off more Libyans than ground fighting would have, well, it won’t matter to harper because he’ll have pulled through the next couple of weeks by making many Canadians forget what an incompetent, self-serving, lying, small-minded, anti-democratic politician he is.

Signs of poor jugment?

No, signs of a person completely devoid of any sense of ethics or social responsibility.

Most employers do background checks to weed out applicants who have committed serious crimes such as fraud.  They also do them to weed out people who fail miserably at managing their own affairs and finances.  Employers tend to view people who spend recklessly then default on loans as not particularly trustworthy.

Most employers want honest, trustworthy employees, preferably with no criminal record.  You know, people with integrity.

Mob bosses prefer people who are greedy because they can be bought and made to do things that ethical people would refuse to do.  They seek out seasoned criminals because they know that morals and ethics won’t get in the way of getting a dirty job done.  They prefer people who have no respect for the law and no care for who they hurt.

Let’s see who the current Prime Minister of Canada had as one of his top advisors for many years.  Surely a law-and-order type like steve would insist on someone who has absolute respect for the law, someone trustworthy, honest, with a clean record.  Someone who can manage his own affairs ethically and successfully.

Meet Bruce Carson:

- disbarred for forging cheques and stealing $23,900 from a corporation and two individual clients he represented.

- sentenced to 18 months in jail in 1983 for his criminal conviction of two counts of theft for misappropriating almost $20,000 of his clients’ funds by forging their signatures and stashing the money in his own bank account.

- had a habit of “living too high and overspending,” as the judge put it, so that it caught up to him between 1978 and 1980.

- defaulted on an $11,310 bank loan, a $70,000 mortgage for one property, a $3,033.01 loan on a 1978 Lincoln Continental, a $1,189.50 account he’d run up at the Hudson’s Bay Company, another $1,900 bill to a leasing firm as well as having a second house repossessed.  His punishment?  Pay a $13,000 penalty.

Despite (or maybe because of?) this history, steve felt he was just the right guy to act as his close advisor for years.

Now what kind of advice would you expect to get from such a man - a fraudster with no concern of who he harms through his greed?


That harper chose to have Carson close to him in an advisory position is not so much a sign of steve having poor judgment as it is of him being devoid of ethics and respect for our laws.

Vampire? Maybe. Definitely not human.

Teneycke is a real piece of work, alright.

Always time to leech off of a good tragedy

Who the hell except a creepy sociopath trying desperately to convince Canadians that he has feelings would ever even think of posting these on the PMO site?

Seriously.  I know the little dick-tator hates to be told anything, but someone should tell him this is not what people with normal feelings do.

First, the emotional flat-liner pulls out a 3 1/2 year old photo of himself with Lech Kaczynski and puts it up...why?  Because I'm not a sociopath, I can only guess.  To make us think he was pals with the man so we believe the loss is really touching him?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper with Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland, at the NATO Summit in Riga, Latvia, on November 27, 2006. President Kaczynski died today in a tragic plane accident

Next come the grief photos.  Note the sombre look as he signs the book.  Most of us prefer privacy at such times, but not the Big Guy.  He actually sets up a photo op to capture his sincere sadness for all anadians to see.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper signs the Book of Condolences for Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland, in the presence of Zenon Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland's Ambassador to Canada

In case you didn't quite figure out how truly saddened Fatso is by the tragedy, he kindly sets up another photo op of him on the phone (my favourite type of Steve promo shot!), nice and close so that all Canadians can see how sad he is.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper offers his condolences to Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland

Because, you see, it isn't about President Lech Kaczynski at all, nor those others who died with him, nor the many directly affected by the loss.  No, it's all about Harper.  All the time.

Look! Look!!!!! Look at me, how tough I am!!!!

Some people never really grow up.  They never reach that self-actualization zone where they know who they are, and are comfortable there.

They are the ones who buy expensive showy cars so that others will notice them.  Their sense of their own existence is determined as how they see themselves reflected in others eyes.  They constantly position themselves where they will be noticed, and their actions are meant to garner praise, admiration, and awe.

They feel real only when they believe they are affecting the lives of others.  They talk tough, like they are in control all the time, like they are a force to be reckoned with, like they are a man’s man.

Their language always gives them away.

"The entire planet has been able to witness that Canada is now a major actor when it's time to intervene in natural disasters," Harper said.

So is that why we are helping Haiti?  So the entire planet can witness our greatness?  The disaster, it seems, is but an opportunity for Stevo to flex the countries big, tough, muscles.

And tough we are, according to him.

The purchase and use of C-17 transport planes is an example of the "hard power" requirements of the type of relief work soldiers are now doing in Haiti, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said during a tour of the country.

We used to be wimps, he tells his audience (presumably the entire planet), back when those soft on everything Liberals ran the show.  Hell, even Canada’s policies were soft.

Harper said there was a "time when that kind of heavy-lift aircraft didn’t fit Canada’s soft power policies. But our government bought them for the hard power requirements of today’s world. Now we’re using them for relief work.

But fear not.  No longer will we be wimps in the eyes of the world.  Captain Everything is here to make sure of that.

"What is the moral of the story? To do soft power, you need hard power. You need a full range of capabilities."

I suspect, however, that Steve who has to be the centre of everything, all the time, is really trying to show Canadians, the world, the universe, and everything what a tough guy he is.  What a man’s man.

And they're all gonna look at him.

***more (and better stuff) here.  About Harper's lie in this matter, and an explanation of hard power and soft power.