STICK TO WHAT YOU KNOW...

It's the advice that Stephen Harper has obviously taken to heart.
He began his minority government with a broken promise, that bald fart who doesn't like democracy being hoisted into the senate to act like an untouchable minister. Then proceed to poach a former minister from the past government -- apparently it was a hat tip to Paul Martin, because doing what Harper whined so much about ala Belinda is the sincerest form of flattery that a CON can give.
Economics? Well, no one said he knew what to do with his degree. Canada's economy hitting the skid isn't all the fault of Harper's half-wit measures, but spending like a saucy Hilton wasn't what real conservatives had in mind.
Now, he's ending his gov't with a broken promise. Oh, it's only the fixed election law that likely won't tarnish his bogus image much -- on its own. People expect governments to fall. That apparently Harper's whole urgent drive to improve our democracy was only meant to impinge on Liberal governments.
And what else does chess-playing Harper know? Perhaps he knows what's in the pages of Coulliard's book, which is slated to hit the streets by coincident Oct. 14th. You know, the predicted day at the polls. It's also the day when Elections Canada is expected to deliver a bases-loaded double or a grand slam on the CONs' weasally suit. Of course, suing is also something Harper's very familiar with. His words of 'We made no promises or offers' to that CON candidate didn't stand up in court - the CONs folded like a tent but did get their silence. Stifling opposition questions on the inferred bribery comment that Harper said, caught on tape. Yep, you've got it, there is suppose to be some major answers or at least more questions due on that Cadman scandal due, oh, about Oct. 14th.
Maybe Harper knows something else.
But I know what I know, and Harper's a CON. And that's enough to have me energized.

GENERATION GAPS...

Funny how so many on the NdP team like to hold our feet to the fire for delaying an election, for abstaining from so many votes. I too have been troubled at times, but let's not pretend that the Liberal opposition and the NdP are playing the same game.
One group has the responsibility of presenting an alternative for government, of providing Canadians with a better choice. The other squad is happy to make noise, to see incremental, subtle progress, even if it is at the cost of universal daycare or social justice for the First Nations people.
But when it comes to the environment, the NdP is now ragging the puck. By sticking to their contrarian guns and denouncing the Green Shift as tax shift that targets the poor, they've conveniently ignored many elements of Stephane Dion's policy, which dove-tails nicely into his 30-50 plan to deal with childhood poverty. At the same time, Jack Layton is ignoring reality of the economic free market, where in cap and trade, businesses will be downloading its costs onto consumers, both rich and poor.
It isn't that the Green Shift has to be defended, although it certainly is under attack. It is an idea that when presented to Canadians in a concise, straight-forward manner, may help bridge the gulf of scepticism and denial, two elements that Jack and Stephen prefer to deal in...


Hope and action are elements that can overcome major obstacles and overwhelming dilemmas.
The Green Shift is meant to provide both hope and action for a cleaner future.
Our carbon-emitting already has a cost attached, one that is visible in the melting ice caps, that is revealed in illness-causing pollutants, and in the health of our food and water supplies. It is a global problem, but it is also a local issue. The answer can only come from both global and local action.
Stephane Dion's Green Shift is designed to attach a cost to the carbon we use, and to encourage and promote wiser, more ecologically responsible choices.
While other parties choose to deny the urgency and pretend that someone else should fix the problem, Canadians know otherwise. Climate change is not the next generation's problem. It is our reality today.
We as Canadians have always been willing to carry our load, to deal with tough situations straight on, and be leaders at home and abroad.
That's why when the Conservative Government chooses to attack instead of discuss, insult instead of debate, the truth is not served. It is their way. It is not the Liberal way.
When the NDP join the Conservatives and argue that a Cap and Trade policy is the only solution, are they conceding that action on climate change can wait until Stephen Harper sees the light?
Or do they just prefer to ignore the perils of delayed action?
Stephen Harper would prefer you ignore the issue and postpone the responsibility. But just as Canadians made the sacrifices to restore balance to our economy, so too are they concerned about the environment.
If it is really about ideas and urgency, then it is up to all of us to make the choice, to do what we can, little by little, step by step, to fix the problem.
The Green Shift is the first step, a step that promotes action, that rewards change.

PLAYING BY A DIFFERENT SET OF RULES...

...is obviously how the Stephen Harper CONserfatives think the world works.

After today's Ethics committee circus, Part Duex, there doesn't seem to be any other conclusion.

Heck, even after they appoint the Chief Electoral Officer, their defence is that 'He's one of THEM!'

Kady sums it up with plenty of wit here: praise her and her supplier of Red Bull for all the other bull**** she has to endure, and endure it she does.

Although she stubbornly points out that the CONs hope to drag the Bloc and what happened during the 2000 election into the frey (unsuccessfully), the Blue Men troupe appears to be tipping their hand.

If it was good then, why not now, their rationale must be. Would that explain their own fearless leader's disregard for Election Canada's donation limits?

All I can add is, these are the things we've caught them at. Even the muddling inept -- whether decked out in stylish hats and eyeliner -- can get away with a crime these days...

SPLIT PERSONALITIES...

For those Stephen Harper fans here in B.C., life has become a big contradiction.

Most align themselves quite comfortably with Gordon Campbell of the right-side B.C. Liberals (a close relative of the long-departed SoCred Party). Their mortal enemy remains the red-underwear wearing BC NDP.

In their current battles against their provincial rivals, the BC Libs (which include a mix of federal Liberals, CONservatives and even far-right Christian Heritagers) wave the big flag in support of Campbell's Carbon Tax. They'll cash their $100 cheque in the coming weeks as tho it was a valued BRIC share.

But by night, donning their Harper fan club issued 'CON-Head cap', they denounce Stephane Dion's Carbon Shift plan, which includes a reduction in income tax plus a plethora of tax credits which almost replicate Harper's own tax-credit mania from a few years back.

No discussing the issue with a straight face, however. Incendiary images and bluster only, please. Canadians who support the CONs expect nothing but.

Perhaps their biggest secret fear is that their 'so-called leader' will do one of his 180-spins and try to combat Dion's plan with a faux carbon tax of his own. Don't laugh -- many CON supporters were assuring their elder relatives that their Income Trust accounts were safe under Heir Harper.

They line up on the blogs to post 'Dion is the Devil!' and 'Tax Grab!' crib notes, while filing into Campbell's phone cubicles to pump up the benefits of a Carbon Tax.

If they were true CONs, perhaps they'd stand by their principles and rip up their cheques.

But we've come to expect nothing consistent from this gang that has lost its chess pieces...

PANTS ON FIRE...

Besides protecting Big Oil, the public and the media should really wonder just why Stephen Harper and his Blind Mice Band feel such an urge to paint a picture that hasn't even been drawn yet.

Despite solid numbers which show, poll after poll, even, that Canadians want real action addressing the global warming issue, the CONs true instinct is to deny, diffuse and distort.

Well, at least some prominent people are getting their say out to the 'left-leaning' media.

Dr. David Suzuki quickly came out and defended the idea of a carbon tax as a way to reduce our carbon footprint. Now professor and top resource economist Marc Jaccard is standing up and calling the CON ad attack as "just totally dishonest", he's speaking as someone who has studied the issue of how to address and compared the various solutions. Obviously his take isn't vested in how best to confuse the public.

The as-yet unreleased Liberal platform on Carbon Tax shifting has turned the party and Stephane Dion into an easy disinformation target. Last month's announcement has also opened the door for discussion and discourse -- if only we had a government that valued those tools.

Although he's happy to have his photo taken with Schwarzenegger, Harper remains among the dinosaurs -- having only recently discovered the environment as a major issue. Protecting his friends and funders in the oil industry remains Job One in Harper's book. He was dragged grumbling and pouting to the issue, and he's fooled some with his half-assed declarations before the cameras. But when someone steps forward with some real action, the CONs so-called leader is exposed as a fraud.

As with his stance on nearly every other major issue, disinformation remains the order of the day (nuclear safety, hospital wait times, accountability, Afghanistan, public security, etc).

While there remains a debate on whether carbon tax or cap and trade is the best singular method to engage in, our oil dependent economy requires a mixture of both. As noted in the Stern study, commissioned by the British government, doing nothing about global warming and carbon emissions is a kin to suicide -- both economically and environmentally.

Canadians unfortunately are currently led by a government with its head stuck in the tar sands, and an Oil Spot spewing their lies.

A STITCH IN TIME...

Who ever is surprised at the following, please feel free to date and comingle with members of the Hell's Angels without facing any consequences.

It took the CONs nearly three months to take a second-hand tape to two right-wing friendly analysts who then produced a CON-friendly analysis of Stephen Harper's gravel-driveway confession...

And it only took the CON ad team a couple of weeks to design, concoct and otherwise 'fund' a new neg-ad, with the concurrent free publicity of such, to combat a still-unfleshed carbon tax shifting Liberal policy initiative. Nevermind that Harper's own intentions regarding climate change, remain as encapsuled as the hot air spewed by his drones Van Loan and Moore.

As to the CONs own policy ideas and plans, being the guys in government, we're still left in the dark. But I'm hoping they keep 'Splotchy' as their spokesperson when and if ever they decide to enlighten the electorate. Because, let's face it, Big Oil is just the kind of appealing friend-of-society that most of us harbour deep wells of sympathy and empathy for.

One other point: if it is to be a battle of ideas and responsible goals, I'll proudly stand beside Dion, May and Suzuki anyday against Harper, Gwyn 'oily' Morgan and Splotchy (my guess is they're getting a mascot suit sized up for Peter Van Loan at this moment.

RETURN OF THE JEDI...

It's a legitimate question, but questions are a quibble apparently the Stephen Harper government does not deal well with.

But many are asking it - why delve into your own pandora's box and bring out an ol' dirty little scandal when it had disappeared behind a litany of fresh ones?

It's chess, people.

All that public cash the Harper government has been lavishing on private polls and focus-groupings may have told them something about their two most recent (as of June 6th) missteps, the NaFta-gate and Maxime's Own In-And-Out-And-Misplaced Emporium of duck-ups.

While the public was easily shielded away from the CONs' faux investigation result of the Brodie cock-up spreading stories about American politicians, the Maxime and the Biker Chick fracas has legs, so to speak.

While you better damn be sure you know what your father-in-law's up to, Liberal guy, but darn if its anyone's business who's cavorting with who behind CON closed doors. So that may explain why all those Oil Executives bring a bouquet to visit the PM...

Changing the channel is one thing, and this group of morally challenged buffoons have remotes for all occasions, but zigging back to your own malfeases seems a little counterproductive, doesn't it?

But this week Harper's chubby attack dog de jour, portly Jimmy Moore of Port Moody, is wheeled out with neon talking points dancing over his shoulder, to feign outrage and unleash accusations of uncertain proprieties. The tape's been fiddled with! Tampered at! Toggled too!

Yet when it becomes clear, that without some guilty party attached to it, and with no real interest in getting locked into a law suit with either the author/taper-in-question or the publisher, Moore had to resume his blathering by trying to pin this on the Liberals.

It's an attempt of fuzzicating the original accusation, which was that the CONs, led by Stephen so-called Harper, had approached dying independent MP Chuck Cadman in search of a deal to acquire his vote in 2005. Heck, even their own candidate and Cadman's widow remains adamant on that central point.

Obviously, this gang of bumbleheads has watched too many Law and Order episodes.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a method to their madness. First of all, as witnessed in the success of their favourite presidential bumbler GWB, creating stuff and throwing it at your opponent doesn't require authenticity, but stickability.

Secondly, noise is news. So if someone is shouting out about your attempt to bribe a dead man, shouting out 'when did you stop beating your wife?' can be a potential evasive trick.

Thirdly, with the economy heading down the toilet, and with an injunction that would keep the tape locked up in September on the books, this could be that additional pressure trying to prod Stephane Dion and the Liberals into bringing down the House.

While I'm all for an election -- wavering and disappearing during some of Harper's slippery tricks has not gone well with me nor a number of Liberals I admire -- I do agree that timing is critical. Harper believes a summer campaign, with Dion having less time to sell his (still unlaunched) carbon tax shifting idea, could be his best window. Ontario is only going to get uglier in the meantime and he needs to hold there and build in Quebec. Meanwhile, his toilet-paper thin talent pool of MPs continues to reflect poorly on his control-freakiness.

Squeezing the Liberals into feeling they have to use what had been a fairly neutralized tape (but because they would have made it a centralized point to their campaign had it been on the other foot, so that's why they fear it) when its available may be clever. But if I was advising the Liberals, I'd even toss out the tape now and just use Dona Cadman's quotes. And Maxime Bernier's stumbles, and... well, the list is growing, isn't it?