They're not all stupid...

The spectre of suspicion having been raised over Campaign Life Coalition's MASSIVE NEW POLL, even some FDers are asking questions:

On the other hand... "LALALALALALALA! I can't hear you!!!"

It's because they lie, Dr. Dawg...

...all the time, day-in-and-day-out, constantly, unceasingly, unstoppably, inexorably, lies without end, amen. "Pro-life" is synonymous with "lying", or might as well be.

One of the reasons I love Dr. Dawg is that he gives everyone a chance. At Dawg's Blawg, even the most drooling, slackjawed, spittle-flecked right-wing cretins at least get a chance to make their idiotic cases, and he'll respond to them as if they had something worthwhile to say. (I should point out, though, that I love the CC consortium for the opposite reason -- the swiftly unerring way they target and nuke the stupid and self-righteous is a thing of beauty.)

But back to the Good Doc. He was engaged in the comments of his post about Dr. Morgentaler's Order of Canada by Deborah Gyapong, one of the gasping, crotch-sniffing pearl-clutchers we affectionately refer to as "fetus fetishists". The same comment was also published as a post at her blog. Dawg responds.

Someone as honest as Dr. Dawg may wonder why engaging anti-choicers is such a byzantine process of posts and counter-posts, comments that appear as posted, comments that disappear down the memory hole, comments that don't appear at all, and accusations of him having done the same. Well, it's simple -- because they lie. All the time. Constantly. And the propagation of those lies takes priority over any actual discussion. They are first and foremost propagandists, and even debunking their lies won't stop them... they just carry as if nothing's happened. Not that I'm comparing them to Nazis, but Joseph Goebbels would certainly be proud of this kind of tenacity.

Know that, Dr. Dawg, and you know what kind of playing field you're on when you engage these people. And why CC is right.

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!

Aww, too bad: no Abortion-Breast Cancer link

And the fundies were so counting on it. Jeebus will have to find another way to punish evil sluts who have abortions... tooth decay? The heartbreak of psoriasis? More to the point, anti-choicers will have to find some other way to terrify women who want abortions, because this one's toast. Birth Pangs has the details on the latest research that breaks the fundies' crayons by putting the idiotic Abortion-Breast Cancer meme to rest.

The goofy "ABC" canard originated with flawed studies done back in the early 90's. Since then it's been refuted by study after study and breast cancer experts like Dr. Susan Love. But in spite of all the evidence against it, the ABC link still pops up regularly on social conservative websites and blogs (usually preceded by a screaming big-ass headline that translates to "you're fucked!"). With so many studies contradicting this, it's obvious that anti-choicers knowingly disseminate complete and utter bullshit just to terrify women. They use their beloved "ABC link" the same way the Bush administration used the scant and questionable intelligence on WMD in Iraq -- overwhelming evidence to the contrary was just ignored because it didn't fit the agenda.

So what are they saying about it now? It appears they've ratcheted the message down a bit, saying the #1 danger of abortion is that it "denies women the opportunity to reduce their breast cancer risk through childbearing" or some such happy horseshit. Quite a ways from "cause and effect". But even this is disingenuous since having an abortion doesn't prevent a woman from having future pregnancies when she's good and ready to have them. And of course, that's what this is all about: "When she's good and ready to have them".

Although the evidence against it is clearly in (and in, and in again), I expect "the link" to re-appear in anti-choice websites again soon; it's just too good to give up. They'll stop flogging this dead pony the day Dick Cheney admits there's no link between Iraq and al qaeda. The agenda trumps the facts, always.