YOUR EYES AND EARS AT THE DANCE OF THE SEVEN VEILS...

No need to blather much about yesterday's EVENT, where a certain naturalized Canadian of German extraction held all of Ottawa atwitter with his 'no comments' and 'can't comment without my seely posturpedic mattress' ad nauseum. But then, being the showman, he offered some gourmet entrees to open the door enough to guarantee many, many, many future appearances.
Best to read the witty, clever, and snappy synopsis of the fifth estate's eschewing.
But just a few comments. Amazing how unashamedly clear-as-crystal the CON members of the committee were in trying to stall, hinder and just about derail any questioning (as per marching orders from the PMO) at least until the afternoon news cycle had been cleared. They weren't successful, but points for being obvious.
Interesting that, after watching the event, and then numerous journalists summarize it, that only Bobby Fife --tooting his horn for a future appointment, perhaps?-- pulled from the witness testimony that Harper had NOT received the letter from Mulroney. In fact, CTV repeated that fact when ol' owly Oliver did his short-n-sweet two sentence wrap-up. No doubt framing it all for Mike Duffy.
But the other reporters at CBC and Global did not jump to the same conclusion. That from Schrieber's response, it just may have been he felt snookered that the letter didn't result in anything being sprung, er done. Nothing that can be pinned nor cleared but still very interesting.
Of course, the inclusion of "good friend" Elmer McKay, the man who gave his seat to Mulroney and would become one of his most loyal cabinet ministers, increased the 'ain't this an old issue?' factor. May be more successful in tying this to Peter than Stephen, but no doubt Schreiber will offer some snacks on this subject at a later date.
It was comical almost to watch guest star Mulcair trying to implant some Liberal DNA into this mess, mentioning another ancient mariner Marc Lalonde, and something about a $10,000 gift in '93 -- hey, weren't we all giving $10,000 donations those days just to get Mulroney out of office? -- which sank like a stone. No doubt there's more prodding to come in that area.
What may have been lost and certainly I only saw it on the CBC from babe Krista Erickson, is the possibly stinky mess that is the CONs announcement yesterday to bring more competition to the wireless phone industry. Apparently, then-industry-coat rack Maxime Bernier was taken by the elbow by ol' Lyin' Bryan into the arms of Quebecor president, who's business includes wireless. That Mulroney is on Quebecor's board of govenors is kind of messy, too, and not an official lobbyiest (reflections of this shady CON). Naturally, if it meant we didn't have to hand over $300,000 in large envelopes we're all winners, right?
No doubt, the CONs are getting a little nervous and eager to change the channel. Anyone for an Afghan holiday?

COALITION OF SMALLMINDED AND SLOW-FOOTED...

Golly! When you're right, you're right.
Canada has found a willing partner in its fight to battle climate change as an 'all-or-nothing' buffet meal -- that megatropolis of the bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago. Scheduled to host the Commonwealth states' next summit in 2009, Trinidad and Tobago realize, that as an industrial nation, there's no sense in trying to take action unless everyone's onboard. If we want to protect the Mayberry-way of life, holding onto our comfortable 1950s mindset, we have to stand up to those other action figures. Climate change, after all, only affects those who don't vote, right? Just like our own sluggish leader, they understand that emitters like China and India won't be shamed or scolded into reducing greenhouse gases, nor should they be. There'll be no 'me first' when it comes to global warming.
Only by seeing the powerful duo of Canada and Trinidad and Tobago standing up to those debunkers of global inaction, the European Union, and Indonesia, and Japan, and a couple dozen or more other countries plus approximately 88 per cent of all major scientific institutions, will the two Asiatic polluters see the point.
It's an amazing ruse. And if you don't mind holding the next Commonwealth meeting in a boat or under water, I think its smashing.
And let's all agree that when it comes to not taking a lead on climate change, Stephen Harper is a leader. What the world needs now, is a united isolationist approach, and our zaftig Harper appears up for the challenge. If we only had him around when the world was fighting apartheid, the Nazis, polio....

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN...

Location, location, location.
When you're on your high horse in Ottawa, you can accuse someone who's snarking about a plan to add more seats to Parliament, addressing some inequities in the western regions, for being 'a small man of confederation."
But put the team's leader on the world stage, and he reverses the ideals. Apparently, the small man can drag others down to his level, ensuring nothing is achieved. Then he brags about it, remarking that the one accord that has achieved things was 'a mistake'. You may argue to the depth of achievements, but don't offer nothing and and sell us 'peace in our time.' If our own planet and life as we know it wasn't in the balance, it would be too laugh.

H/T to applyliberally and Quito.

MARDI GRAS OF BROKEN PROMISES...

A serious chill is in the air and one could be excused if they thought it eminated from Ottawa. The CONs continue to put a freeze on keeping their promises, unless there's a photo-op attached. There latest reversal? How about hacking the wages of our fighting men and women in uniform.
Harper loves to paint himself as the man of the Forces, propping his big belly beside any gathering of soldiers if there's a camera in range. But his latest move -- despite what appears to be an ever-growing explosion of financial lucre coming from the treasury department -- really should be making everyone, including the Blue Men Group's tin-foil cheerleaders, go Whaaa?
Naturally, blogging CONs are aghast at such a move. Not. In fact, catch some of the rhetoric being spewed over at wise emissary Red Tory's booth and you get the gist that CONs don't quite stand behind the forces when it comes to giving them a decent wage.
Well, you say it wasn't a promise really. It's just the meme that Harper wanted the electorate to believe. Sort of like telling seniors and business leaders that income trusts were safe under their watch. Or that government social programs were protected because the bureaucracy and judiciary were there to be a check or balance. Maybe just to be bludgeoned is what he really meant to say.
Like those yule logs being sold at Canadian Tire, the promises and official stands of Harper's CONs pre-government and post-government are geared to last but a few hours before they become ashes.
Create 125,000 daycare spaces? Nadda. Improve health care wait lists? Zippo. Something about accountability? Gotcha!
How about a new, independent voice on the world stage? Oops!
It appears that the best time to catch Stephen Harper lying is to ask him what he and his government is going to do next...

CONNECT THE DOTS...

I hate to beat a deadhorse, but when everyone is pillaring Canada for its sudden shift to sanction the death penalty (in countries where the gov't has been duly elected, bought or trumped up by a irrational judiciary) I can't see why repetition isn't warranted.
Now it's the Council of Europeans shaming the Harper government for not standing up and requesting that a Canadian on US death row have his sentence commuted. That doesn't mean he's let off, nor is it a demand for them to turn him over (although that could although very unlikely be the result). It means we don't believe in the concept of an eye for an eye.
And this just doesn't apply to the death penalty, but charges and serious injustices that other governments, elected or otherwise, may bring forward and impose upon Canadians without a fair and clear process.
If the MsM would just connect the simple dots that follow this decision by the Harper government and, while in opposition, their handling of the Arar kidnapping in 2002. Here is an example of one man, accused without any need to show their evidence, being exported to be tortured for accused crimes that remain unexplained still today.
In 2002, Harper chose not to stand up for that Canadian citizen, but instead supported blindly the power of the U.S. in dishing out 'justice' to whomever they see fit. He then proceeded to attack the gov't of the day, suggesting they stood up for terrorists. No standard trial, no scales of justice. Kind of like, creating a make-shift prison on a remote island where you can march your manacled 'terrorists' into a pulp, without having to explain yourself, reveal your evidence nor exhibit the acts of humane nation.
He wasn't for the principle of 'innocent before proven guilty', nor the belief that the Canadian government is the representative of ALL Canadians, innocent or guilty.
No, in fact, his misguided Van Sloan-ized tirade against Dalton for daring to stand up for Ontarians is another example of how he sees the world through rigid partisan lens. It's as though his lust to smite the Liberals and what they stand for boils inside him like a rancid meat sub.
If it wasn't so disgusting, it would be to laugh.

PLAYING A SHELL GAME...

Hey, isn't that ol' Jimmy Flathery, former Ontario con-man now all dressed up as Canada's financial honcho, practising the fine art of 'flim-flammery'?
One can scratch their head and wonder -- the little leprechaun had just weeks ago trumpeted the rewards of a $14 billion surplus, handing out sweets and promises of more sweets for generations to come, thanks to your friendly neighbourhood CON government.
The MsM continues to take the tact that yesterday's resume and old speeches are off limits when it comes to ingesting the blarney from the CON leadership. But wouldn't it help to remind Canadians, with such strange acts as transferring money that was meant to compensate First Nations people who were victimized as children so as to pay the summer students?
Like a cheap carnival huckster, Flathery works the shell game to perfection. Now you see it, now you don't. Does this sound familiar?

A WEB OF HIS OWN...

When you're such a master of spin, it's dizzying when the spinner gets caught.
Here's betting most of the mSm will miss the point that sticks out like a sore thumb with Stephen Harper's Aboot-Face on looking into the Lyin' Brian Affair.
His foolish threat last week, publicly dodging a responsibility and trying to openly threaten the opposition at the same time looked just a tad-too-much from pro wrestling's script.
Never mind that Harper has already introduced the ol' 'Digging in the Closet for Liberal skeletons to be used at some later date' (hmmm, maybe around election time?). It's just more of the school-yard bully Canadians have come to feel cool and fuzzy about over the past 22 months.
Maybe its to distract people from other small quibbles that have impeded Harper's image makeover, like unplugging democratically elected candidates.
However, he may just have stepped into this one in a way he didn't intend. Not only has he given the opposition a window on an ol' scandal -- funny how old issues tend to do so much damage -- but he's pedalling backwards to ensure his own conduct isn't under scrutiny.
Now, trying to cover his tracks and possibly supplicate his base, Harper is trying to look on top of things again. Give the guy credit -- he has no shame when it comes to pretending that his impotent ambivalence one day is now his greatest concern the next.
It doesn't seem a week goes by when he doesn't pull a hypocritical backflip before the media, likely smiling to the cronies in the backroom after the teleprompter is turned off.
That's our Leader. Not.

CATCHY and KVETCHY...

So eager to put 'A Just Society' six-feet under, Stephen Harper and his McMahon-and-Tate-less government has dug to the dullest depths in search of a slogan.
One that would set Canadians' feet a tappin', but the first incarnation 'Canada's New Government' wore thin after 16 or so months.
Not that it wasn't new, because they sure acted like it.
Now, Harper has turned to mixing religious metaphors with astrological signposts, by bleating 'Northern Star' when ever there's a pause in the teleprompter.
How has it caught on, now three weeks into its existence?
Well, how about a lead balloon?
If Harper's goal is to eradicate such liberal platforms and achievements as multiculturalism, universality and strong federalism, he needs to get back to the drawing board.
Unless of course, this is just the first step to Canada becoming 'Northern Star State.'

PICK-AND-CHOOSE NOOSE

It may be 'playing to your base', but the CONserfative government's decision to 'pick-and-choose' its moral authority, or is it an obligation?, in defending Canadians at large is something that should concern everyone.
Never mind that a poll, strangely commissioned by this Over-the-Top gang that doesn't want to re-open the death penalty issue (then why fund a poll on it?!). If there is no 'hidden agenda' with Stephen Harper, then why is he slipping in these decisions without so much as a debate in the House or a float of a trial letter-to-the-editor? Now THAT'S Leadership!
Even newspapers from strong Conserfative bases are questioning the government's moral authority and fibre on this change in policy.
There are enough skeletons lurking outside the closet door to indicate that Harper's not-so-hidden agenda exists. While the MsM is adamant that a man should not be held responsible for the things he said in the distant past, but what about the near past?
Had this gang been in power, would they measure the merits of standing up for this man or this man? Which would they choose, if they chose either? It certainly is obvious where they stand on this case -- the lone country to not request repatriation of their prisoner from this anti-Geneva prison.
And when they say 'democratically elected government', then why isn't this man on their radar? Or is it just governments that support their causes, like this one? Well, I'm sure once they are finished fighting the opposition tooth and nail they'll spend a little time standing up for Canadians and a moral obligation. But what would they do if it was China, prepared to execute a Canadian for providing abortions?
In the Stephen Harper world, justice is a 52-card deck. If you aren't one of their chosen causes, you will be at the will of the draw.
Another case of Not-So-Hidden-But-Scary-Just-The-Same Stephen.