Harper -- No religious right connection

... if you're blind.

Buckets has it.

McVety "not surprised" complaint tossed

Okay, yesterday Birth Pangs brought us up to date on Chuck McVety's lame and astroturfed complaint against Justice Beverley McLachlin: EPIC FAIL. Strangely, only the Globe & Mail and the USian version of lifesite was reporting it. So far not a peep from lifesite or for that matter, any of the vile scum who championed the complaint. (Well, I'd probably be looking the other way too.)

But anyway, today the Star reports:

"The Canadian Judicial Council has thrown out a complaint against a Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin that accused her of playing an inappropriate role in recommending Dr. Henry Morgentaler be nominated for the Order of Canada."

and adds that Jabba the McVety has finally stirred and croaked out a response:

"Charles McVety, who as president of the Canada Family Action Coalition drafted the complaint letter, said he disagreed with much of the decision but was not surprised." (E.M.)

Not surprised? Then why the fuck did you cretins file the bogus complaint in the first place!? I want to know how much this little sham costed US, the TAXPAYERS. And I want McVety to pay it all back -- Every. Fucking. Cent. Until then, I don't want to see any of these improvident socon imbeciles running their mouths about "taxpayers' money". Like I said before...

9th OC returned... twice

This is an event of such earth-shattering significance that nobody except lifeshite is reporting it. After 2 months of whining and shrieking, moaning and groaning, fainting and swooning, a 9th Order of Canada has been returned:

"On July 10, John Culliton Poston returned his deceased uncle E.M. Culliton's Order of Canada medal in protest of the growing list of controversial Canadians being granted Canada's highest civilian honor - most notably the prolific abortionist Dr. Henry Morgentaler."

Whoa, hold the phone: July 10th? I thought the guy's name looked familiar! It looks like he tried to return his (deceased uncle's) OC to the wrong place and they sent it back. So he returned it again, to the right place this time, and it became "news" again. Tsk-tsk, lifesite, that's astroturfing, and astroturfers never prosper.

UPDATE: Not only that, but it's a dead guy's OC, so it's not even John Culliton Poston's to return anyway. So let me get this straight: lifeshite reported twice on an OC that was "returned" twice that isn't really even the returnee's to return... how the fuck many lies is that??

Don't call us "goofballs", babykiller.

We have a pulse! Yesterday Cliff Pyle, "Life Ministry Co-ordinator" of Saskatchewan "Lutherans For Life" (and husband of Life Canada's Saskatchewan rep, Nicole Pyle) responded to Colby Cosh's merciless smackdown of the CFAC's absurd complaint against Justice Beverley McLachlin. Boo hoo hoo!:

"Colby Cosh's ad hominem attack on Brian Rushfeldt and Canada Family Action Coalition shows how liberal thinking operates in our fair land: If you don't agree with it, attack it with animus and subjectivity.

His comment about "Punting deeper still into goofball territory" is language unbecoming of a journalist."

"Lutherans for Life" is one of the groups clinging tenuously to life on the updated list of the "42 Organizations™©®etc.etc"... though Cliff didn't mention Colby Cosh's derisive snort about the veracity of Rushfeldt's "42" ("CanAm Fabricating & Welding stands strong in favour of life!"). No, it was being referred to as "goofball territory" that Mr. Pyle just couldn't abide.

Truth hurts, I guess. If these people don't like being ridiculed, maybe they should stop being ridiculous. Until then, I see no reason not to continue unabatedly deriding and mocking them with great gusto and uninhibited joy.

The "42 Organizations" Crash Diet

Woohoo! Here's the most current list of the Canada Family Action Coalition's "42 organizations" that signed the complaint against Justice McLachlin, revised to reflect its Ultra TRUTHfast™ diet and subsequent slim-down. As it stands, without the bloat there are now 20 legitimate "groups", less than half of the original 42. To those still left on the list:

"Have ya called Buckets yet?"

UPDATE (Aug. 23): 18! ~ 18! ~ 18! ~ 18! ~ 18! ~ 18! ~ 18!

A little balance... from the Globe & Mail!

From an editorial today titled "Smearing the Chief Justice": now this is more like it:

"Still upset over the appointment of Henry Morgentaler to the Order of Canada, a coalition of anti-abortion groups has filed a complaint with the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC), accusing Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin of misconduct for her part in chairing the Order of Canada advisory council. It is a frivolous accusation and one that the Chief Justice should not have to answer at all, much less publicly.

Those who oppose abortion, or seek restrictions to protect the lives of fetuses, take the decision to honour Dr. Morgentaler as an affront. To disagree with his appointment is reasonable -- abortion remains a polarizing issue -- but complaints about the outcome should be made to the Governor-General, who awards the Order of Canada, not to the CJC.

To attack the process by which Dr. Morgentaler was appointed to the Order of Canada is also open to the Canadian Family Action Coalition. The group can do so by challenging the Constitution of the Order of Canada, which obliges the Chief Justice to act as the chair of the advisory council to the Order of Canada.

Accusing the Chief Justice of judicial misconduct, however, suggests these activists are merely looking for publicity." [...]

"If the Canadian Family Action Coalition is concerned about the constitutionality of the provision under the Constitution of the Order of Canada requiring the Chief Justice to chair the advisory council, the group should challenge the requirements of the law. This complaint to the CJC about the Chief Justice's alleged misconduct is a cheap shot, and unconvincing." (emphasis mine)

W00t! And that's without even knowing about the Astroturfing.

Today's "42 Organizations" special: 50% off!!!

I had so much fun with the migraine-inducingly confusing United Families Canada that I couldn't resist checking out another name on the amazing shrinking List of 42™©®. Next target: "Live-In International". Can you believe I was unable to find out anything about this organization/business or whatever? (What? You can believe it?)

I realize that some of these "pro-life" and religious groups are teenie-weenie (heavy on the "weenie"). But it raises the question of how small is too small -- one person is too small to be a group, but it can still be on the list as one person, as long as it's verifiable that they exist. Even the tiny little one-person businesses on the list are at least searchable (which is how buckets found out some of them were astroturfing).

So should the elusive "Live-In International" be included in the list of organizations behind the complaint? Well, maybe -- if we could prove that it exists. But given what I've found (or not been able to find) so far, I think it's chopping material. Using an organization that's unsearchable and unverifiable is almost like, well, making up names and adding them.

So Chop-chop, "Live-In International"! Unless Buckets or one of you guys reading can find out something about this thing, it's Bye-bye! And this 50% Off Astroturf Sale brings the original List of 42™©® down to 21. For now.
UPDATE: CC has more on another one of the "complainants", 4 My Canada... more astroturfing? And then there were 20?

UPDATE II: Or... maybe not. From PSA at CC.

UPDATE III: Correction! "Live-in International" is a real group after all, a small group by the sounds of it, but big enough to be considered a group. So says buckets here in the comments. D'oh! No Half-price sale today, we're back up to 22!

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to

...ASTROTURF!!!

Last night, looking at the slimmed-down list of groups named in the complaint against Justice McLachlin, I got interested in "United Families Canada". UFC got my attention because it didn't appear to have a website or anything else to prove its existence, other than some text in the banner of the "Restore Marriage Canada" website, and this, on the RMC "About Us" page:


"The Canadian affiliate of United Families International" -- is that so? Well, that's funny because "United Families Canada" isn't even listed on UFI's "Affiliates" page:


In fact, I combed the UFI site and couldn't find "United Families Canada" listed anywhere at all. The closest thing is in the UFI's "Projects" category, where "Restore Marriage Canada" is listed. And of course, as mentioned previously, "Restore Marriage Canada" claims to be a project of "United Families Canada". And around and around and around it goes, where the bullshit stops, nobody knows.

When the obfuscating crap is pared away, there are only two players here: a US group, "United Families International", and one of its projects, "Restore Marriage Canada". (Why the state of Canadian marriage would be any concern of a US group is another story.) There is one person, Jill Cahoon, who calls herself "president of United Families Canada". There's a PO box for UFC in Aetna, Alberta. On the Canada Family Action Coalition's "Defend Marriage"astroturf list contacts page, "United Families Canada" is listed with Ms. Cahoon's home phone number in Tofield, Alberta.


I've been unable to find any members of "United Families Canada" other than its president... probably because it isn't a group at all. It's one person who copy/pastes newsletters from the US group "United Families International" on the "Restore Marriage Canada" website, which itself is a project of the aforementioned UFI:


and for that she gets the honour of calling herself "El Presidente". In fact, the only proof that "United Families Canada" even exists, is that Ms. Cahoon says so...


...and, well, given the truthiness track record of Rushfeldt's 42 groups™©®, I'm afraid that's just not acceptable. Certainly not if it's to be named in something as serious as a complaint against a Supreme Court Chief Justice. What do they think this is, friggin Amateur Hour? This is serious fuckery. "United Families Canada" should therefore be struck from Rushfeldt's list of groups, and at best, replaced with the name of an individual person, Ms. Jill Cahoon.

Yo, buckets: did you say "25"? How about 24??

UPDATE: And another one's gone and another one's gone... "Take Back Canada" isn't a group or even a person fer fuck sake, it's just a website. I'm sure some douche runs it (the "Stop The HRCs" banner looks, um, familiar), but Whois didn't reveal any information. Therefore, chop chop! Off it comes! What have we got now, 23?

UPPERDATE: Goodbye, North Shore Pro-Life (or "Right to Life", with the same address and phone number it's all good), subsidiary of Pro-Life BC, provincial affiliate of Life Canada. And then there were 22... will we make it down to HALF? Stay tuned...

Taking a closer look

It's melting, melting... the number of *legitimate* organizations on The List of 42™ now stands at 26. And as Buckets toiled tirelessly into the night, just for fun I decided to take a closer look at some of the "organizations" that remained to see if I get in on some of this sweet Chuckstomping, credibility-shredding action.

I started with "United Families Canada". UFC doesn't appear to have its own website, but there's a United Families International. "United Families Canada" isn't in UFI's list of chapters, but under "Projects" there's a link to a site called "Restore Marriage Canada", which claims to be a project of "United Families Canada".


United Families Canada has no website, no phone number, and -- great snappin' assholes, it's the Ghost of KLRVU, back to haunt me! But with no web presence, no contact info other than this email addy for "Restore Marriage Canada", and no way of finding out who heads up this group, should it even qualify as a "group"?

Or if UFC is really just UFI, an American organization, should they really be named in a complaint against a Canadian SC justice? Who knows, maybe anyone in the world can file a complaint... or maybe this is just another case of "astroturfing for Jesus". Seriously, if all that's needed is an email addy, any asshole could set up an "organization".

For all its amorphousness, United Families Canada has a few supporters. While I was searching for UFC on Google, I ended up on a "men's rights" blog that had a post about United Families Canada from back when the socons were furiously campaigning to roll back equal marriage. The site "masculinisme" is predictably anti-feminist, but its blogroll is the real motherlode of misogyny, linking sites with names like "women are sexists", "exposing feminism", "feminist filth", "feminists are the real terrorists" and "dump your wife now"... huh!? "Dump your wife now"!? That doesn't sound like family values stuff to me! Anyway, it's a seriously misogynist little web-scab. Which made me wonder why, when I scrolled down to the bottom, I found this:

Huh!?? Oh SUZANNE, you nefarious little gender-traitor, you! BUSTED!!!

UPDATE: Did I say 26 groups? D'oh! 25, baby!