Showing posts with label waste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label waste. Show all posts

Sunday, September 5, 2010

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.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Expensive and unorthodox sleep aides.


Caution: could cause nightmares.  Really, really boring ones.

Anyone registered to receive PMO notices knows that they need to check their mail over the weekend or risk having it fill up.

Why?  Well Dear Leader seems to think we are getting value for money with these:



Who except the odd salivating member of the Dear Leader Fan Club, guiltily fantasizing over what a dreamily-dreamy-dream the Beloved Leader is as they chew marshmallows – slowly – late at night has the slightest bit of interest in seeing these, let alone foot the bill for them.  And why so many of this type that show Steve, nothing but Steve, and even cases of Steve in front of a picture of Steve?

Yes, yes.  I know.  “but-but-but-ADSCAM!!!”

Someone took my truck off-roading and got it stuck on a stump.  Expensive, yes.  Unnecessary, yes.  But if someone else leaves the cream out and it goes bad, I’m not going to say “hey, who cares, remember the truck?”

No, I’ll still be annoyed because it’s wasteful and unnecessary.

So not another word about ADSCAM.  I will never forget ADSCAM.  I have it tattooed on my arm.  I renamed my dog ADSCAM.

Now back to the photos.

Some photos actually put Steve in some sort of context, but the majority of the shots are self-aggrandizing.  Sort of creepy if you go through the PMO photo link with its page after page of Harper close-ups, as above.

This group is one of my favourites:

29 June 2006




Only 3 photos there, and guess what?  No ceremony, no Acadians, no athletes. Just Steve, Steve, and look...Steve.
 
Here’s a telling one:


Steve, the really important focus of this meeting on funding for AIDS.  Really, who gives a fuck about Gates, right?

But then, we are dealing with a guy who thinks the perfect Christmas card is a photo of him looking at photos of him and who believes the best décor consists exclusively of…yes, pictures of him.

Why would Stevie think we are at all interested in this barrage of photos of him…talking, mostly.  Or just standing there?  Or looking like he always looks, all the time, same expression.

It isn’t as though he has the spontaneous, fun nature that makes for good candid shots like this guy had:


 He doesn’t do warm and fuzzy well at all:


And can’t even pull off a decent I’m-just-a-regular-dad shot:


And don’t look for him in celebrity news like this fellow:


Steve can’t do casual like this man could:


People wanted to follow Pierre Trudeau around with a camera.  He was fun, interesting, spontaneous.


I suppose Steve hopes that if he shoves his picture at us often enough, we will  be enthralled (as in brainwashed).  Cult leaders are known for that tactic.  Or he has such a powerful belief in his own wonderfulness he figures if we see his image often enough, we’ll just all swoon with love and hand our lives over to him.

Not in a billion universes and all of time, Stevo.  Besides being a small minded, vicious, provincial, misogynistic, petulant, sulky, visionless, unimaginative, sociopathic, ego-centric creature, you’re as boring as dandruff.