Pay attention, 'cuz I'm only saying this once.

Strategery! The tactical brilliance of Stephen Harper.

Over at Progressive Bloggers, a number of Canada's not-crazy people are rolling their eyes over Stephen Harper's offer to cancel upcoming vacation to make up for prorogation. Said progressive bloggers are quite confident (as am I) in thinking that this is a totally dickhead move that should blow up in Harper's face, and simply proves how frantically he is looking for damage control.

Over at the Blogging Tories, it's a different story:

No March Break For You!

In a true Seinfield move our Government has cancelled March Break and an additional week without the prior consent of the opposition parties to highlight the political games over prorogue.

The sitting days were reduced by 17 days and now have been restored unless the opposition refuse to honour this change. Checkmate Larry, Curly Moe!

CanadianSense's commenters are equally agog at the ruthless ingenuity of King Stephen:

The_Iceman said...

Is it official? If so that is a brilliant move.
February 3, 2010 10:10 PM

hunter said...

Old Taber lies and says it was 4 months, what a lying hag!

The heat is back on the opposition, they have to agree or look like fools. I would love for them all to not show up, that would leave the government to govern, imagine the amount of bills that would get passed!
February 3, 2010 10:12 PM

Fay said...

Another great post!!! You are on Roll...I was watching Tom Clark when Robert Fife announced this at the end of his show. Tommy's face went very red and he appeared mad. Why would he care if he is allegedly non-partison.?
February 3, 2010 10:41 PM

Bec said...

The signs of a professional journalist hey Fay? A red angry face...haha, what a baby Tommy has been and is, honestly.

Great post CS!! You indeed are on a roll but doncha just love the ranters at the Globe piece? These people are truely pathetic and really, really uninformed on the REALITIES of Paliament.
February 3, 2010 11:10 PM

CanadianSense said...

Bert,

The tactician know as Harper is brilliant. The MSM has spent over four weeks fueling outrage for a short delay in parliament sitting.

Net result: The PM has shown the issue was fake by putting extra days back in the calendar without the prior consent of the three parties leaving them to complain how unfair and undemocratic this move is to force them to work and make up for the "Harper Holidays".

Cake anyone?

Priceless!

The PM has now increased his authority in the parliament by virtue of the relentless antics of our disloyal opposition. They again have refused to hold adult conversation and provide real ideas into the new budget for 2010.
February 4, 2010 10:22 AM

When reality arrives for these people, it will not be kind. But that's just a guess.

P.S. It's amusing to watch "CanadianSense" still too mind-crunchingly stupid to have figured out that whole historical prorogation thing:

I have made fun of the three stooges in opposition who have undermined our democratic institutions for playing games on a constitutional tool deployed 105 times in a country that is 105 [sic] years old.

Here at CC HQ, we have already addressed that idiocy. Honestly, it's like there's real bloggers, and then there's the Special Ed class over there in the Stephen Taylor wing.

AND SPEAKING OF "AGOG" ... courtesy of Montreal Simon:

The B.C. legislature is slightly agog over next week's pending visit by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Apparently, he intends to address the chamber Thursday...Apparently, the visit was not by invitation from the provincial government. Rather it was Ottawa's idea.

That whole "agog" thing? Pure coincidence. Really.

IF I MIGHT BE SO BOLD, surely someone in the Liberal Party of Canada has come up with a savagely stinging comeback for Harper's latest descent into fascism. If it were me, it would go something like this:

"I'm pleased to see that Prime Minister Harper finally appreciates how much work needs to be done, and regrets that unfortunate exercise in prorogation. Personally, I can't wait to resume the committees looking into the alleged torture of Afghan detainees. And I'm sure the PM feels the same. Time's a wastin'. Let's get it on."

Or something equally snappy and clever.

Kittehs.

In a weirdly ironic example of timing, I had already planned to introduce the readership to the new resident here at CC HQ:



She's the one at the back -- I've named her "Runty." With my luck, she'll turn out to be a hulking beast.

And here's the tribe in days gone by, trying to figure what's so appealing about being up there:

So Long And Thanks For All Teh Fishes

About half an hour ago I said my last farewell to my beloved little buddy Iggy. At 21 years and 3 months of age she lived a good, long and very spoiled life. Recent months saw her health declining with hyperthyroid issues and arthritis limiting her mobility. Last night she was having trouble supporting herself and after consulting with the vet I made the toughest decision I've made in a very long time. Rather than prolong her discomfort I opted to let her pass while she still had her dignity. A trooper to the very end, she went out in peace, loved beyond measure. I'd like to say thank you to the kind and gentle souls at the St. Francis Animal Clinic for helping us through this difficult passage. I was unable to properly thank them at the time as I was having trouble holding myself together enough to keep from sobbing my way out the door. I still feel as though I betrayed her trust but deep down I know that what weeks more she might have had would have been weeks of suffering.

Good bye you little bugger, I love you like crazy. And now I'm going to go and hide for a while.

Every conversation you've ever had with a Blogging Tory. Or two.

Be nice to people you meet on the way up, ...

... because as your career is careening earthward in a ball of flame and feces, you might be reduced to defending yourself in their comments section.

Absolutely no disrespect to the Rev, of course.

When truly stupid Blogging Tories blog.

Once upon a time, your humble scribe pondered thusly:

Let's consider how much of the taxpayer's purse is going up in smoke due to the Harper government's intransigence in refusing to allow the return of Canadian citizens marooned overseas. Let's start with one Abousfian Abdelrazik. How much Parliamentary time was wasted debating this case, arguing it, litigating it? How much time that could have been spent doing more productive things was blown off due to the ridiculous racism of Stephen Harper and his cronies? Would anyone like to put a dollar value on that? And add to that what Abdelrazik might make in a massively-justified lawsuit, I'm guessing we're talking millions of dollars -- money that simply did not have to be spent.

Now who -- who, I ask you -- was simply too eye-rollingly retarded to not see the inevitable bearing down? Oh ...


Accountability: it's for other people. Not Conservatives.

P.S. Amusingly, Neo thinks this is news, despite linking back to a news article from September of last year. So it's true -- those people really do think as slowly as we've suspected.

Profiles in Accountability, Part the Next

The Montreal Gazette has a piece today about the spending plans for the Department of Defence. The NDP defence critic, Jack Harris, was able to get this information in the past, but now?

In 2007, NDP researchers asked for and received the year-by-year spending estimates stretching out to 2050 that the military has for all of its new weapons programs, infrastructure and equipment. But Defence Department censors blacked out the annual spending estimates when the NDP asked for an updated version.

And David Akin has a good idea of what's going on here:

Since taking office in 2006, the Conservatives have committed to spending $240 billion over the next 20 years on new equipment for the Canadian Forces.

Those spending commitments are at the heart of one of the Conservative government's most important narratives, that they are finally re-building a military that had been neglected by previous Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments. That narrative is more political rhetoric than political fact. In fact, the three biggest year-over-year percentage increases in military spending in the last decade were made by the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.

But, you know, AdScam and such. And what's behind it all? What's motivating the sudden secrecy around defence spending? I think Akin may have an idea:

In any event, the Conservative political rhetoric on military spending is now in conflict with a political imperative that is taking on new importance for the Conservatives: fighting the deficit.

Sounds about right to me. So the conservative governance model is once again proven right:

1. Cut taxes
2. Cut taxes
3. ???????

Result: More money for everyone!

Now, it could be that the spending changes are being "recalibrated" -- whatever that means -- in preparation for the next couple of years, when our international commitments will nosedive to almost nothing. But this government doesn't seem to think that mere opposition MPs, let alone mere members of the public, ought to get a say in any of that.

The madness of King Stephen.

In all seriousness, would it be over the top for Canada's political punditry to finally suggest that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is quite mad? No, really, can we, at this point, add the phrases "mentally disturbed" or "psychologically unbalanced" to the political discourse?

We've certainly seen more than enough evidence by now. From Harper's micro-managing megalomania to his creepy narcissism, why isn't it appropriate to finally suggest that there is something seriously wrong with that boy's wiring?

It was a hoot to watch this parody, comparing Harper to Adolf Hitler:



But, by the end of it, could you really not think that you were watching something awkwardly close to reality, where one imagines Harper closeted with his closest lieutenants, proclaiming that he's really, really tired of all these Afghan detainee questions and he's going to prorogue Parliament again, and he's not even going to bother walking over but will do it by phone, at which point there is an uncomfortable silence as said lieutenants look at each other, and one finally has the nerve to pipe up, "Uh, sir ... I really don't, uh, think that would be wise, the people are still a bit miffed from last year and this has the potential to backfire badly ...", whereupon Harper slams his fist on the desk, bellowing, "Who cares what the people think? I am the Prime Minister! L'etat, c'est moi!!"

And lest you think I am being unnecessarily hyperbolic, let's remember that it was the Right who invented this strategy of questioning the mental competence of their political opponents. Former practising psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer alone created an entire cottage industry out of "diagnosing" Democrats, which -- as I recall -- absolutely slayed the residents of Wankerville. Rolling in the aisles with laughter, they were. And it's safe to say that, whatever you think of Al Gore, he's a picture of rock-solid sanity compared to Stephen Harper.

So, why can't we finally address this? Regardless of how foamy and frothy it might make Canada's Idiot-sphere, they really don't have the moral high ground here. Having mocked the mental stability of their opponents for years, those useless yahoos really don't have much of a position from which to take umbrage.

Let the diagnosis begin.

Triumph of the Wank.

Can I draw the obvious comparison now? Please?

"Barbara Kay, to the Damage Control Desk. Barbara Kay."

The National Post's Babs Kay takes time off from her new gig as Kathy Shaidle's understudy to hork up another hairball.

Ah, National Post, I will so miss thee when thee is gone.

CURIOUS. Is it just my imagination, or did the same wingnuts who studiously avoided the comments section on that original cringeworthy article suddenly come out in full force to fawn all over Kay in that newer piece?

It does seem delightfully choreographed, doesn't it? Even relentless wingnut "Sassylassie" stops by to give Babs a thorough fluffing. Metaphorically speaking.

HEH. INDEED. Commenter "mhogan1024" makes a delicious point:

One can only hope theology studies are next. One can study religions in other departments the same way as one studies myths, but don't credit belief without evidence as a serious university subject.

Well spoken. If the wingnuts want to dismiss womens' studies as advocacy or political indoctrination, that would seem to go double for the worthless, vacuous rubbish that passes for theological scholarship these days.

If Canada's Christopaths want to sit around and thoughtfully debate why evil exists or how many angels can fit on the head of a pin, they can do it without my tax dollars.

Wankers, prorogation and a new CC HQ reader challenge.

It seems like only yesterday that Canada's intellectually crippled were celebrating the ruthless political gamesmanship of Stephen Harper. What a masterful stroke, they cried, using prorogation for the second time in a year to cut the Opposition off at the knees. What a brilliant tactician, riding high in the polls, the master of his domain, yadda yadda yadda.

But these days ... oh, dear.

Which inspires one to ask, is there any evidence of a single idiot wanker who was crowing gleefully over Harper's iron-fisted dismantling of democracy only a few weeks ago, but is now sobbing into his beer at the end of the bar, lamenting, "What the fuck was I thinking?"

Seriously, if one wanders the barren wasteland of Canadian conservative intellectualism, can one find anyone who, having thought that whole prorogation was just ducky, the cat's meow, 23 Ski-Doo, is now more than happy to admit that it was an unmitigated disaster?

Feel free to check things out, and get back to me -- leave answers in the comments section.

P.S. Pointing at people who thought it was an asinine idea from the start doesn't count. What we're looking for is evidence that, somewhere in the Canadian Idiot-sphere, there exists someone who is actually capable of learning from a savage, political boot to the berries.

WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE? How about that? Although identifying Connie Fournier doesn't count since she thought prorogation sucked from the start. But the obvious sense of betrayal is amusing, don't you think?

In the kitchen with Dawg.

Last Saturday evening in Ottawa, being wined and dined by the inimitable Dr. Dawg in the company of Lulu and Dawg's delightful co-blogger Marie Eve. And here's Dawg's spice rack:



Yeah, you should be jealous.

Thank you, CBC.

Breaking news:



In other news, Canada's hockey team eagerly looks forward to playing a lacklustre first round, barely eking their way into the playoffs and flaming out in glorious style.

I just thought that needed saying.

I've been thinking of a career change.

Chronosynclastic infundibulum, baby!

(Wag of the tail to PZ.)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Part deux.

*Snicker*.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Remember this delightful bit of misogyny? Who could possibly have written that?

Who, indeed?

Support Right To Play, Shame On VANOC And General Motors Canada (Repost)

With the big sleazy event right around the corner I thought it would be nice to have another look at one of the highlights on the road to the Vancouver Olympics.
________

VANOC the walking filth that has mounted the corpse of what once was a noble movement and fucked that dead beauty into the mud, sinks to a new low. Being less honourable than whores and less generous than pimps, they have banned the Right To Play charity from the Olympic village and from the Olympics. Here are the folks that are being cut out of Vancouver...

The Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee (LOOC) conceived Olympic Aid (now Right To Play) in 1992 in preparation for the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. The focus of Olympic Aid during these Games was to show support for people in war-torn countries and areas of distress. A partnership was formed among the Red Cross, Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council, Norwegian People’s Council, the Norwegian Church Fund and Olympic Aid to raise funds for and awareness of the specific initiatives each of these organizations were implementing.

As you can see, these are not the sort of people that share the vision of the VANOC. No indeed, these are people for whom ethics and morals feature in their lives and works. To the real estate speculators, masturbating lawyers and greedy swine of VANOC this is entirely alien. Obviously Right To Play presents a grave threat to the integrity of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. After all, this is the sort of work that these terrifying, current and former Olympic athletes and their supporters do...

Right To Play is an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world. Working in both the humanitarian and development context, Right To Play trains local community leaders as Coaches to deliver our programs in more than 20 countries affected by war, poverty, and disease in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, guides our work. Right To Play programs target the most marginalized including girls, the disabled, children affected by HIV and AIDS, street children, former child combatants and refugees.

Right To Play is supported by an international team of top athletes from over 40 countries. As role models, these athletes inspire children, raise awareness and promote opportunities for funding for Right To Play projects. Currently Right To Play works in: Azerbaijan, Benin, Chad, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, occupied Palestinian territory, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, and Zambia.

OMFG! Those horrible fiends. Not only do they give their time, expertise and star power to children in war torn and impoverished areas, they also have conflicting sponsors. They're lucky just to be excluded from the Olympic Movement (which is resembling a bowel movement more and more, day by day), I'm surprised the VANOC champions of corporate greed haven't sued the charity into dust and ashes.

Andrea Shaw, vice-president of marketing for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC), told the Star as much in an email sent late Wednesday night. That came following an interview earlier in the day when she explained Right To Play would not be allowed to set up a booth in the athletes village as it had done in the past because it has conflicting sponsors with VANOC.

"It is VANOC's (our) understanding that the IOC has raised the same concerns on conflicting sponsorships with Right To Play and has taken the position that Right To Play can no longer be associated with the Olympic Games," wrote Shaw.

Now let us be perfectly clear, the Olympic village is not a public venue and is secured exclusively for use by athletes, coaches and officials. Even with a conflict in sponsorship, it would be one that exists within the confines of the athletes' secured area and wouldn't impact the public face of the games. The purpose of Right To Play's presence would be to recruit athletes as ambassadors and offer them the opportunity to share their love of sport with children. Well the modern Olympics have blessed little to do with the love of sport or plight of children, not when there is the love of money and the worship of greed to supplant the fussy bother of athletics. So what is that deathly conflict of sponsorships?

Shaw said VANOC made the move based on contractual obligations to sponsors to give them exclusivity. One of the main sponsor conflicts between Right To Play and VANOC in Canada was in the automotive sector, where VANOC has a lucrative deal with General Motors Canada and Right To Play is supported by Mitsubishi.

Splendid, let it be known that Mitsubishi, makers of fine, efficient automobiles and some of the world's most renowned engines, have cast their lot in support of an athlete driven charity that brings joy, sport and healthy play to children in need around the globe. VANOC and General Motors Canada, makers of a failed line of unspectacular vehicles and gorging on public money to stem their losses, do not care a damn about children. VANOC and General Motors Canada have banished those that care more about children than money from their big show.

VANOC is the organization that has raped the language, claiming ownership of such words as "snow" and "winter" and has gone so far as to trademark a chunk of our national anthem. Their relentless greed and vulgar ignorance know no bounds. Now it seems quite clear to me that the Vancouver Olympic Games of 2010 is willing to build its fortune at the expense of children's misery. Way to go VANOC! Be sure to buy your over-priced, sweat shop manufactured plush toy of Quatchi the child hating mascot, exclusively for the only kids that matter, wealthy ones.

Now one would imagine that some sort of arrangement might be made. But one would be wrong.

Koss said that Mitsubishi had agreed to end the partnership if it meant VANOC would allow Right To Play into the village, but said VANOC was demanding they not have any association with any non-Olympic partner company between now and 2012. He said that would be the end of Right To Play.

"We had a choice between running our programs or being in the Olympic village," Koss said. "With that, it was very clear we cannot stop running our programs, our commitment to the kids."

Isn't that adorable? They aren't just greedy, they're greed is punitive and demands exclusivity and fealty. Nothing says charity quite like threats and conditions. Again, Mitsubishi was willing to forego their sponsorship for the greater good and for the long term benefit of children around the world. In terms of corporate stewardship and responsibility, they have set a sterling example here. General Motors of Canada and the VANOC, not so much. No wonder fat Steve Harper decided to divert millions from arts funding, within the heritage portfolio, and pour our good dollars into the guttering flames of the Olympic torch as it illuminates a shameful course across Canada. These are his kind of folks, they know what side of the filthy lucre is buttered, meanwhile the good guys, the athletes and children are toast. Victory!

"Among those disappointed is Olympic rower Silken Laumann, a past chair of Right To Play who still serves as a member at large.

I can't get in VANOC's head," Laumann said. "They've made their own statements around why it won't work as far as their Olympic sponsorship. But I can say that it's the first time that an organizing committee has tried to stop Right To Play from being in the Olympic village.

"Right To Play has always had corporate sponsorship. Every not-for-profit in the world today relies on corporate sponsorship for non-restricted funding, which is an integral part of running any of its programs."

In the 21st century Olympics, the athletes don't matter, the Olympic spirit has been sold to the highest bidder and the world's children can suffer. My hat is off to VANOC and General Motors Canada, long may you both fail.

In case you might want to show that not all Canadians are voracious assholes, here is a link to Right To Play's donations page:

Donate to Right To Play

and here is a link to the good folks at Mitsubishi Canada, in case you're considering the purchase of some wheels that aren't built on spite:

Mitsubishi Canada

The Vancouver Olympics: What could possibly go wrong?

Oh.

I could swear it wasn't April 1.

Someone at the National Post gets a huge jump on a monstrous practical joke.

In other news, J. D. Salinger, renowned reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye, has died. As usual, he was unavailable for comment.

(Cutting J. D. Salinger quip courtesy of the world-famous Dan Shields.)