Apparently, we hard-hearted progressives are being, well, hard-hearted:
Everybody has been crying for Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor's head ever since the first reports came out about Afghan detainees being handed over by Canadian forces to local authorities for certain torture.
Everybody, it seems, except the general public:
Oh, this should be good. I need some wicked, right-wing spin to brighten up my day, as "Loyalist" links us to the ruthlessly objective and bi-partisan Ottawa Citizen, where we learn:
A new Ipsos Reid poll, conducted exclusively for CanWest News Service and Global National, found 53 per cent of Canadians believe it is unfair for opposition parties to call for Mr. O'Connor to step down as they have been doing almost every day recently in the House of Commons.
And before we go any further, perhaps it's worth asking why this 53 per cent is so open-minded and forgiving. Maybe, just maybe, it's because they really don't see a problem here, given that they've been fed a steady stream of Conservative lies, from "Torture? What torture?" to "We have no evidence of torture" to "We have no first-hand evidence of torture" to "Well, OK, there was that one time but it was just some locals getting rambunctious" to "Hey, that guy had the crap beat out of him before we got here." I think it's safe to say that if I got my news from places like official CPoC press releases and the Blogging Tories, I wouldn't see what the fuss was about either. But we're not done here; let's read on.
On the other hand, 36 per cent of Canadians believe Mr. O'Connor has been negligent and should have been monitoring what was happening to the detainees after they were turned over to Afghan officials.
Hmmm ... only 36 per cent, he reports, as if this shouldn't be cause for alarm. Here's a hint, Loyalist: 36 per cent is not insignificant, as you seem to be suggesting. In fact, it's fucking frightening -- that's more than 1 in 3 Canadians who, despite the frantic spin coming out of Ottawa these days, think that O'Connor just plain fucked up.
And if you don't think 36 per cent is something to be concerned about, Loyalist, let me give you something else to chew on -- 36 per cent is exactly the percentage of the popular vote in the last federal election that gave your hero Stephen Harper a minority government.
In short, Loyalist, when you have the same number of people who voted Conservative in 2006 that are now publicly stating that O'Connor is unfit to hold his current position, well, I'd be really, really careful about suggesting that the opinion of 36 per cent of Canadians doesn't matter.
9 comments:
The Citizen link goes into such detail about the results and method of the survey, you'd think they could spend a paragraph outlining what the questions were...
Poor, poor, torture-cover-upper, Gordon O'Connor.
Poor, poor, incompetent, ignorant, lying O'Connor.
When will the Leftists give a person a break? I thought they were all about compassion. Only for their own side I see.
Then again, I thought the right-wing was all about personal responsibility. I thought the right-wing was all about the "rule of law." I thought that our troops were supposed to be defending "Canadian Values" and I didn't fucking know that beating people to death was a Canadian value.
"Here's a hint, Loyalist: 36 per cent is not insignificant, as you seem to be suggesting."
Actually, he is just "suggesting" that 53 is greater than 36, a fact which you spend a great deal of time trying to explain away. I thought you Waterloo computer geeks had to know some math? Or is a level of support almost 50 percent greater than those against somehow insignificant in your eyes?
Sigh ... I really don't get paid enough to teach remedial thinking. Commenter "cc" writes:
Actually, he is just "suggesting" that 53 is greater than 36, a fact which you spend a great deal of time trying to explain away.
Now let's go the original prose, shall we?
"Everybody has been crying for Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor's head ever since the first reports came out about Afghan detainees being handed over by Canadian forces to local authorities for certain torture.
Everybody, it seems, except the general public:
Did you catch that, "cc?" Loyalist dismisses that 36 per cent as being "everyone except the general public," which makes you wonder where he does think those 1/3 of respondents are coming from if not the "general public." Hence, ergo, and to wit, by his very words, Loyalist is contemptuously writing off that 36 per cent as if it's irrelevant to the discussion.
Thus endeth the lesson. Now give Mommy back the keyboard. That's a good little wank.
P.S. I will delete any further comments that use the name "cc". That's not being clever, it's being a dick.
In general, 2/3 of the general public is larger than 1/3 of the general public. So, "Loyalist"'s general public is greater than your general public, and hence, more noteworthy. Thus endeth the lesson.
So, not cc,
What do you think should happen to the scum-bag O'Connor? Or don't you care about Canada's international reputation being dragged through conservative shit to disgrace us for all time?
MAYBE you're working with our ENEMIES!!!
I swear, I'm going to go on crusade, giving the parents of these little wingnuts a good smack.
It's ironic how "family values" conservatives raise the most hideous children.
thwap,
I think O'Connor should resign.
"Canada's international reputation being dragged through conservative shit to disgrace us for all time?"
But take a deep breath, thwap, I mean really. For all time? People won't remember this in a month's time in Canada, let alone internationally.
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