DISHONEST MISDIRECTION...

...typical CON mode of defence. Load up the guns, fire at will. Repeat.
Scott dissects the current 'non-debate' over Stephen Harper's secret decision to axe the long-form census, remarking about how there has not been much of a 'rallying cry' against the census until Harper and sock-puppet and gazebo expert Tony Clement said so. Then the CON-sheeple sat up and began to typeth on cue.
Now they've got renown lazy ex-cabinet guy and bedder of known gangster affiliates Maxime Bernier on the right wing, leading the tea-party-esque silliness. Yes, the minister who forgot his homework near the bed of a motorcycle mama. Well, I know why he doesn't want the Canadian government to know how many bedrooms he has...
The Vanity Press and the Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson nail it in two different directions -- Harper wants to hide his own track record, while framing the future. He knows his electorate opportunities improve with a befuddled, ignorant and impulse driven public. Data, science and substance have no room in the decisions and actions of a Harper government. Stockwell Day and his dinosaur must be cheering very loudly from his seadoo parked in the garage.
It isn't hard to see how this could actually turn into a win for the dicta-er so-called CON leader. Grab an issue that connects in the stomach of a large enough group, hide your tracks and fuzzicate the rationale and debate. Call an election over it. Harper's core supporters are trained seals; they'll vote for fish.
By dividing the opposition's support, through means of governmental warfare, de-funding, isolating and disenfranchising, the right-wing wins.
That's the kind of Canada he wants.

CONSENSUS ON CENSUS...

... unless you're a living-in-the-dark CON, that is.
Oh sure, there's the token non-Tory contrarian questioning the purpose of the mandatory long-form Stats Canada questionaire, which has fostered a whopping three whole complaints to the privacy commissioner over the past 15 years.
Newspaper editorials are nearly unanimous; academia is too. Bankers and bureacrats, also. Geneologists, ditto. Stephen Harper's favourite (second) kicking post, those special interest groups that help the sick, underprivileged and visible and non-visible minorities? Count them as worried. Social planners, engineers, municipalities, policy planners, private businesses - they all have been aided in their work through information gleaned from the Canadian census.
Without a functioning, accurate census, more decisions like this will certainly be easier to slip past the great 'unwashed'.
So, while a virtually silent Harper leaves all the dodging and weaving for sock-puppet Tony Clement, the lie about why continues to stink.
If the issue was about privacy concerns, who raised them? Is it the cabal of religious right fanatics who've gained inside cabinet access through the likes of Darrel Reid? Wouldn't they love to see government eliminate its interest in solving the social ills, ie. a GWB-like platform that would result in religious groups controlling more social response agencies, here and abroad. Or is it the big business information industry that, perhaps, would love nothing better than control the data, the access and manner inwhich it is created? What do you think, Mr. Fraser Institute? Completely speculative on my part, but when Clement can ride a lie that Stats Canada on its own provided the option to rid themselves of this critical tool, I'm afraid even the most machavellian rationale must be examined.
This policy decision, which came about with no public consultation and no great study, according to Tony the talking Tory, must have had some big kahunas behind it. Who are they -- maybe they also know who secretly paid for Harper's run to the Alliance leadership? Or paid off McKay's bill after he turned all-Judas on the progressives who put him on that pedestal? Or is it just another piece to Harper's own remaking of Canada secret project? The one that he occasionally lets slip -- while the mainstream media keeps us comfortably warm in that pot of warming water?
It's up to us, and you, to keep up the heat on this one.

TRUTH MUFFLED...

Should we be shocked that the story on Harper and his "Audit reveals prime minister's department flouted contracting rules", by the Canadian Press' Dean Beeby, is being hidden by the so-called 'left-wing media'?
How is this story not in every Canwest paper, or is not even available when you search google news? I always wondered how their news roll was manipulated, but I wouldn't be shocked to find that it's as open to moral corruption as some other private headline sites.
The story, which I recommend you read, is apparently only available on the Winnipeg Free Press' online edition from June 19, while one other 'publication' (likely a web-only item) has picked it up. Yes, it is a Canwest paper which has been known to think it's own thoughts now and again.
None of the other papers in the chain, or elsewhere for that matter, have printed it to date to my knowledge. Have you seen it? Send me the link if you have.
Let's not forget all the backs to scratch and regulations to be circum-navigated with all these media corporations changing hands.
Deep pocketed ethically-amputated A-holes like our so-called PM know the importance of burying the real goods -- whether its on tape or elsewhere.
I guess when even the talking points can't produce a facsimile of a distraction, smothering the truth is the only other option.
Shamefully, it is apparently working.

HARPER'S HIDDEN FOLLY...

It's been repeated enough that it has become gospel.
It can't happen here because we're different.
So-called leader Stephen Harper said it on the election campaign, along with 'Canada can't afford a deficit', 'if a recession was coming to Canada it would be here by now,' and 'does this mumu make me look fat?' -- ooops, that last one was just for the tax-payer funded psychic dresser.
Nope, the lie I'm referring to about the CONs -- and I know that it's dizzying to pick just one, but let's do so, just today -- is that the Canadian banks didn't get a bailout.
Nope, they didn't. Ask Flim-flam Flaherty. Let treasury bore Stockwell channing Day assure you.
It didn't happen. Wasn't at all like all the others. Nada, mission accomplished, and all that right-wing jazz.
Except:

"The banks were actually "bailed out" to the tune of $125 billion just before and after the 2008 election — in the form of a massive purchase of questionable mortgages and other "rotten paper," in the words of one economist, held by them. This was done through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a federal agency."

It isn't bad enough that the so-called fiscal conservative Harper has been one of the biggest and most secretive liars this side of Tiger Woods. But now we're all on the hook for some large and dubious debts that could reveal Canada's economic stock a crock.
But hey, perhaps we now know why Harper virtually made it his own personal mission to make sure the banks didn't have to face a tax on earnings to cover these possible liabilities. Next up, possibly he'll host a telethon for BP.

DON'T DO AS I DO...

...
may be the memo that Vic Toews may have wanted to pass Canada's top soldier.
Although the circumstances differ -- one being a subordinate puppet to Canada's social conservative so-called despot, the other the nation's top soldier in a war zone -- it does smack of typical CON double standards.
Mr Toews, just as Mons. Bernier's clumsy public dance and private slip-ups with a former associate of known gangsters, knows that a little tryst with a subordinate can work out just dandy.
Perhaps Brig-Gen. Daniel Menard can make amends with the piously dishonest CON government by signing off on some prisoner transfer documents, or fall on a sword...

HUG A BANKER...

In these trying times, it's nice to know who's your real friend.
Stephen Harper, the pal to big oil, is extending his unwavering support to big businesses' Hinterland of Who's, the Big Banker.
Sorry, environment - you'll just have to wait until the bankers' bullion is safe from the Robin Hoods of the world. What's in your wallet?

HARPER DREAM TEAM TAKES ANOTHER HIT...

He knows how to sing a song and speaks in simple, soft tones. His stories have been incredibly tall and entertaining, stretching reality to a fawning audience.
Not only that, but he might be familiar with the CON circle of friends!
Unfortunately for Stephen Harper, Robert Munsch's public confession today was not a mere cry for help but a timely step to avoid being cast as a card-carrying member of the 'laws are for you, not for me' CONs.