The fab almost-forty

Behold the fabulous fabulousity of Harper's new gay cabinet!

Yo, Harper

Stephen Harper's probably never been accused of being "too original", but plagiarizing speeches?:

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper essentially plagiarized parts of his March 20, 2003, speech in the House of Commons supporting Canada's participation in the invasion of Iraq from one given two days earlier by then-Australian prime minister John Howard, Liberal Bob Rae charged Tuesday."

LAME-O.

Harper -- No religious right connection

... if you're blind.

Buckets has it.

She's back!

I wondered why I was getting so many hits to my Naked Mayor post from last year. Looks like she's back, she's dressed (this time), she's ready for action, and the CPC is okay with all that:

"The Conservative candidate for B.C.'s Skeena-Bulkley Valley insists naked photos taken of her in her office are not an issue for the party.

Sharon Smith, the mayor of Houston, B.C., grabbed worldwide attention five years ago when pictures of her wearing nothing more than a smile and her mayor's robes were widely circulated on the Internet."

Of course, The Naked was sort of a side issue I ran into when I was researching the real issue, the fact that the Conservatives were using some pretty sleazy stealth tactics with their candidates in non-CPC ridings. Hopefully there'll be more on that story now that we're in the midst of an election.

But for now, let me state for the record that I personally have no problem with naked mayors or any naked politician. Maybe they should all be required to work naked. Naked people are honest people -- they can't steal from you as easily. That's transparency!

(h/t Accidental Deliberations)

Stay classy, Conservatives

Oooh, right out of the gate the Conservative Party shows its class!!! 

First there was the commercial that featured a puffin taking a dump on Stephane Dion (I thought my sense of humour was sophomoric) and worse, "Dionbook" (which seems to have conveniently exceeded its alloted bandwidth).  "Dionbook" isn't necessarily a bad idea (again, sophomoric, but so what) -- except that it targets Liberal bloggers as well as Dion.  These bloggers aren't politicians, they're private citizens, and as such one would think they'd be off-limits.  What. The. Fuck!!??   PSA has the dirt (but not as much dirt as the Conservatives, obviously).

It looks like Harper is making good on his prophesy that this will be a "nasty" campaign.

2 and 1/2 years down the road

... and although they have a 5-point lead over the Liberals, the Harper Conservatives still haven't hit majority territory in the polls, according to the latest from Angus Reid:

"The governing Conservative party is holding on to the lead in Canada, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 35 per cent of respondents would support the Tories in the next federal election, while 30 per cent would vote for the opposition Liberal party.

The New Democratic Party (NDP) is third with 17 per cent, followed by the Bloc Québécois with nine per cent, and the Green party with eight per cent. Support for the Tories increased by two points since June, while backing for the Grits remained stable."

Harpie must be tearing his hair out. When the governing party in a minority government is still sitting at 35% after well over 2 years in power, the only positive thing that can be said about a "5-point lead" is that it isn't a 4-point lead. Things like this and this and this and this and this and... ahhh, you get it... are probably not helpful... ya think?

That didn't last long

My mymy, how things change. Let's hope this is true:

"The governing Conservatives have discovered something of late: Their modus operandi - politics as war - isn't working as it used to.

In the winter and spring, they had the Liberals running scared from the prospect of an election. But in the soft days of summer, much has changed. A veteran pollster was saying last week that, if an election were held today, the Tories would likely find themselves on the opposition benches." (emphasis mine)

What a difference a few scandals make, not to mention an unpopular war and the tabling of some suspect bills.

Coming soon to a gas pump near you

WTF!? As if the agony of getting viciously screwed at the gas pumps isn't enough, now the CPC is planning to serenade us with their propaganda while their oil company buddies stick it to us?

By now, we've all heard about the newest CPC PR strategy, gas stations with video-equipped fuel pumps. The videos would dump on the Liberals and (presumably) sing the praises of the CPC to the pissed off gas consumer as he/she gets fucked up the ass by the oil companies gas. Orwell would be proud!

"The federal Conservative Party is launching an aggressive new advertising campaign that includes audiovisual ads that will run at fuel pumps equipped with small screens.

“Yoo-hoo,” the blob says, before denouncing Stéphane Dion's environmental plan as a tax grab.

The Conservatives say the gas station ads are running only in Southern Ontario because stations in the rest of the country aren't yet equipped with screens."

No shit... one of these things wouldn't last 24 hours where I work, and not just because of me. We have a little contingent of bored teenagers who hang around our picnic table into the wee small hours of the morning, drinking, smoking dope, and trying to figure out how to raise some kind of hell. The evidence is usually there for the morning shift: like the "Propane" sign found yesterday defaced with crude anatomical artwork. I can only imagine what these tech-savvy kids could do with a vid screen. (The first customer arrives for gas, only to be assaulted with Sex Porn oozing out where there should be CPC Porn.)

I'm with stageleft and RT on this: Everyone in Ontario should BOYCOTT!!! any station that dares to have one of these bullshit machines. And tell the gas stations why they are not getting your business!

The Ghost of Georgie in the Great White North

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it..."

Indeed.

PADscam!

Whoops! We knew something was afoot when the RCMP raided CPC HQ last week... yeah, nothing weird about the police raiding the governing party's headquarters! Now it looks like... Scandalpalooza!:

"OTTAWA (CBC) - The federal Conservatives are accused of exceeding their campaign spending limit by more than $1 million and making "false and misleading" statements in their financial returns in the last election, Elections Canada says in the warrant for last week's raid on party headquarters.

CBC News and the Canadian Press have obtained a copy of the documents, which were supposed to be released Monday by an Ontario court.

Other media, including the Toronto Star and CTVglobemedia, received the documents in a private briefing from the Conservatives on Sunday in Ottawa, the CBC's Keith Boag reported."

The CPC apparently took funds from ridings that didn't spend up to budget and used them to pad the budgets of other ridings... naughty, naughty! The taxpayers of Red Deer probably don't want to be subsidizing a campaign in Mississauga. (Or wherever.) As if that isn't bad enough, it was obviously done with full knowledge that the procedure was "iffy" at best, and illegal at worst. But falsifying financial returns to hide it shows that they knew it wasn't just wrong, or wronger, but wrongest! and so determinedly tried to cover it up... the CPC cooked their books!! Isn't that a CRIME?

They had to say something about it to the media, so they hand-picked a few media "friendlies" for a secret press conference yesterday. And they went to some pretty wild extremes to avoid talking to anyone else:

"When other media organizations, including the CBC, learned of the meeting, party officials scrambled to avoid them, switching hotels, slamming doors and scampering down fire exits to escape pointed questions from journalists who weren't invited."

Slamming doors? Scampering down fire exits!? Switching hotels!!?? This is starting to sound ominously reminiscent of something that occurred in Washington DC in the 70s.

Dion! Are you awake!? The "Time For An Election" wake-up call is ringing off the hook!

Political endorsements

Some endorsements lend credibility. And then there's the other kind...

Conservative Party's Ass, meet (one of) the jaws that'll come back to bite you.

Ooops!

What a relief

No need to worry about the implications of the Conservative government's sudden refusal to ask for clemency on behalf of Canadians facing the death penalty in other countries, because -- "Tories deny hidden agenda on death penalty":

"The Harper government scrambled yesterday to clarify its position on capital punishment amid opposition accusations that the Tories are harbouring a hidden agenda to bring back the death penalty in Canada.

The accusations followed Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's surprise announcement Thursday that Canada will no longer seek clemency for Canadian murderers sentenced to death in other democratic countries after a fair trial.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper insisted the new policy is not a prelude to bringing back the death penalty in Canada. "We have no desire to open the debate on capital punishment here in Canada," he told reporters in Halifax."

Well of course they deny it; it wouldn't be a very "hidden" agenda if they fessed up to it, would it now? But seriously... one couldn't be blamed for wondering what's up with the sudden reversal in what's become standard procedure for such cases. Opposition to the death penalty being a Canadian principle, when a citizen -- no matter how much of a douchebag he may be -- is so sentenced in another jurisdiction, our government seeks clemency. This isn't interference in another country's due process, it's standing up for a Canadian principle.

I wondered if this was a way of gauging public opinion of capital punishment, especially when Stockie, in that sly, stupid way of his, insinuated that asking for clemency wouldn't send a good law and order message. Red herring alert!!! -- capital punishment has nothing to do with Canadian law and order. But it's hard to believe that even this current crop of Yeehaw Conservatives would consider a move as negative and controversial as bringing back capital punishment. It has little support even among Conservatives... or does it?

There's no better place to get a reading on the pulse of wingnut opinion than the good old Western Standard. If the Standard isn't grunting out its unequivocal support for capital punishment, it's safe to say none exists. Over at the Shitgun, I mean Snotgun, I mean Shotgun Blog, they're talking about it. But as I read through the comments I was surprised to find that although most felt the convict "had it coming to him", there was little enthusiasm for reviving capital punishment here. ("Little" meaning there was some -- "The death penalty saves lives!" squealed one character -- and Irony is alive and well at the Shotgun.)

So. Breathe a cautious sigh of relief. Judging by response at the Shotgun, it's unlikely that there's any hidden agenda to reintroduce the death penalty -- support for it would certainly be strongest in that rabid venue.

But it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on things!

UPDATE: On the other hand...

UPDATE 2: Mike has a more eloquent explanation than I'm capable of as to why the refusal to seek clemency is so wrong.

Calling all Catholics

Especially the Conservative-voting ones... here's a chance to prove your so-called "pro-life" cred. Mobilize Catholic opposition to the Harper government's decision to allow Canadian citizens to be executed in death penalty countries rather than fighting for commutation of death sentences:

"Canada's Conservative government said Thursday it will no longer fight to commute the death sentences of Canadians facing execution in a foreign country.

Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976 and the government has long opposed use of the death penalty abroad in cases involving its citizens.

But Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said they will not plead for the life of Ronald Allen Smith, who faces lethal injection in Montana for the 1982 murder of two men."

...and it's not unreasonable to expect Canadian Catholics to ask the big cheeses at the Vatican to make the same threats of excommunication, denial of communion etc. that they've been making against pro-choice and pro-gay marriage politicians.

EDIT: Vanity Press sums it up.

UPDATE: Via SUZANNE in the comments, an article from just a couple of days ago that states the Vatican's position on working to eliminate torture and the death penalty. Will Catholic Conservative politicians step up? Afterthought: And if not, will they be reprimanded?

Libs hit one outta the park

These new ads produced by the Young Liberals are brilliant in their simplicity and timeliness. If the Conservatives weren't already embarassed enough by their latest salvo attacking the Liberals, this should do it.

I won't go into the many ways this is excellent advertising strategy. But I bow to the marketing prowess of my friend Bruce at Canuck Attitude, who saw it coming.

Well done, Young Liberals!

(h/t Cerberus)