From Detroit Free Press:

"They were crooked. They lied. And their illegal activity cost thousands of people billions of dollars."

"... [They employed] falsehoods and accounting tricks to conceal its failed ventures ..."

"Because of what they [did]... money vanished."

"Today, the name is synonymous with corruption."

Why is it that the Enron guys are going to jail but the Liberals are not?

Matt, that's a damn good question...

(And re Kate's remarks about Democrat voter patterns, they haven't changed since the day the Chicago Daley Democrat machine earned the slogan, "Vote early-and vote often." It was said that under the heyday of the Daley Democrat Machine in Chicago/Cook County even teh cemetaries voted.

It's generally accepted now by historians that the Daley Chicago Democrat Machine stole Chicago/Cook County for Jack Kennedy in the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election. Illinois' electoral votes were slightly more than the total edge that Kennedy had over Nixon, putting Kennedy in the White House.)

One could say that Chicago suffers from the same malady that Massachussets does: They keep electing Daleys like Boston keeps electing Kennedys.

Enron guys live in the U.S. The Liberals do not.

Lawyer determined to 'cut off the lifeblood' of terrorism
Stewart Bell, National Post

...Can terrorism be crippled with lawsuits?
"Absolutely, unequivocally," Mr. Motley said in an interview yesterday at a downtown hotel. "You cut off the money, you cut off the lifeblood.
"Ron Motley's not on a personal political jihad here," he added. "It's a fact."
Last night, Mr. Motley spoke at a Toronto synagogue on using the civil courts to fight terror. Today, he is to address the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association. His presentation is titled "From Tobacco to Terrorism."...

http://tinyurl.com/jvgjy

Police arrest 23 in Eagleridge Bluffs blockade.
Anyone see how differently this has been handled than the issue in Caledonia?

Good point Lee. BTW at least one of those arrested was aboriginal.

The aboriginal lady arrested at "Camp Chardonnay" has been dis-owned by her Squamish Band, who are 110% behind the Olympics & the highway construction.

The band thinks she is an enviro-kook and wants nothing to do with her and they went to some lengths to get that message across on the local Vancouver news outlets.

Commenter: Thanks for the lesson!

An Ontario Farmer.

McGuinty is giving half a billion to Caledonia with 'more to come'.

Liberal Hush money. My, my, look how fast McGuinty could find half a billion for this! And more to come? I also wonder how much the natives will get 'for this land'? Fifteen million damage to hydro transformer, no big deal. Forgedaboudit. The millions in losses to people outside of Caledonia...forgedaboudit.
I guess folks, Ontario farmers should take a lesson from this. After all of our protesting after the hardest growing years on history, we got 125 million from McGuinty for each and every farmer in this province. Never mind that we pay taxes and create 90,000 jobs in Ontario.

HERE'S THE LESSONS:

We weren't violent enough.
We should have insulted OPP officers.
We should have broken laws.
We should have taken out the power for all Ontario residents.
We should have destroyed bridges and roads.
We should have set huge tire fires all over Ontario.
We should have blocked traffic.

Of course as we've been shown, the OPP won't arrest anyone.

Thank you natives for showing us our errors. Next time, we'll do better.

L

http://www.voy.com/178771/15553.html

a protester/instigator with a most appropriate name

When Shakespeare's Coriolanus begins the 54th season of the Stratford Festival on Monday night, all eyes will be on a mob raging against what they see as the cold-hearted disdain of those ruling their impoverished state.

And that's outside the theatre.

What began as a local protest by the Perth County Coalition Against Poverty has become a larger event that threatens to disrupt the opening of Canada's most prominent theatre group.

"Our game plan is to shut the theatre down for the evening," coalition organizer Doug Trollope told the Star yesterday.

read it all . . . . 50 years of social engineering and this is what we get

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1148593811611&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630

Note: Peterson is Bob Rae's left-hand buddy... Peterson was the fixer for BS crossing the floor to Big Daddy AdScam $$Martin. $$$$$$Librano$

This has been a learning experience for me as well.

Dave Peterson has a wonderful way of summing up the official attitude. He told the people of Caledonia that the dispute was none of their business!

The media is already out there, repeating the mantra that white racism was the cause of the trouble. ...
http://www.voy.com/178771/15556.html

Commenter: "Bugs"

Here's a proposal. Have the Federal gov't cover the expenses related to Caledonia, and deduct that amount from the transfers to First Nations through INAC. Demonstrate that there are fiscal consequences for those people who chose to destroy or damage someone else's property / infrastructure.

Steeve J :Here's a proposal. Have the Federal gov't cover the expenses related to Caledonia, and deduct that amount from the transfers to First Nations through INAC. Demonstrate that there are fiscal consequences for those people who chose to destroy or damage someone else's property / infrastructure.

Nice idea. Too bad that the Socialists would laugh at it. It was all white inspired racism don't you know.

They care nothing for the working citizan. Its all about there ideology. Individualss are expendable. The dogma must be pure. Hence patients should die for hospitals shortages to keep there communist health system with no private outlet. Keeping the party line no matter who dies.

One of those points is: All racism is a White phenomina & society is the hot house that makes criminals & Natives the way they are. If not the cause of poverty. Alkies, early release of nuts, criminals, given a free ride, & finnaly drug addicts . All the result of the middle class as the Loony left thinks. It why they weep over monsters. Yet children mean nothing.

The fact Indian affairs is more corrupt than all the scandles put together & always has been. Means nothing.

Its like the Socialist insanity of thinking gay marage is natural & hetro is the unatural state.

They slur the poor, thinking poverty causes crime. It never occurs to them to look up the facts. AS many middle calss & rich , end up criminals as the poor .

This Native group in Caledonia where thugs & vandals. Now there given a reward for there behavior . When we know what would have hapend if the Whites there had done the same? The usual double standard from Socialists.

If it was up too thenm . Jails would be empty & addicts would have free drugs & boozers free drink. They would make out city cores a wilderness of crime & poverty.

Prime Minister Harper fits this "job description". Wow, Iggy tells all about Harper. Kudos, to Iggy, aka Mikhail. ..

(Courtesy: TDH Strategies - Solutions for Everyone)

"What would you do to make politics more human and more accessible to the common voter?

Just talk to people, listen to people, treat them with respect. The leadership campaign is a small rooms campaign in which you sit and listen to people. I'm about to go to another small event where people are going ask me about my policies and my views, and we're going to have a discussion. I think that you can renew people's faith in politics if you treat people with respect and listen to them carefully. And then, the second thing you have to do if you are able to secure power, is that you really have to lead. Leading means making difficult decisions without perfect information, without enough time, that are bound to change the course of your country. Well, it's very difficult, and you succeed or you fail, but it is certainly built into the job description." ...

Stephen Harper was in British Columbia on Thursday to announce he planned to make street racing a criminal offence. The Press Gallery showed up, and, you guessed it, turned the event into a story about the Press Gallery.

CBC carried clips from the Q&A.

Harper comments that "The Press Gallery will not allow journalists to ask questions."

A reporter off-camera bellows: "It's simply not true what you just said."

Calling the Prime Minister or President of a country a liar is what passes for journalism these days. It's the fastest way to become a hero to the Press Gallery.

Except that Harper was explaining fact, and it was the reporter who was lying. It's even on video...

When the Prime Minister arrived, he took a question or two from the lines, then asked Tim Naumetz, who writes for Canwest and Time Canada, whether he had any questions. The transcript of what happened tells the story:

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2006/05/news-with-disclaimer.html

And let's not forget just one hero of many who make all this discussion, and native unrest possible...Captain Nichola Goddard. May she rest in peace.

Just a question...does anyone know if Bill Roggio is in country with the Canucks yet? I know his site says that a week after 9th May he was going,so i was wondering if there was any word....

Paul Wells speaks about the parlementary press gallery (from 2003)...

"We have become a ridiculous bunch. For the past five years it was hard to find 200 words, in even the Globe and Mail, on the contents or ramifications of any bill before the Commons."

http://weblogs.macleans.ca/paulwells/archives/week_2006_05_21-2006_05_27.asp#002357

From CBC:

"A judge in Nebraska sentenced a convicted child molester to probation instead of prison, saying she believed the man's short stature would cause him harm in prison.

Cheyenne County Court District Judge Kristine Cecava on Tuesday sentenced Richard Thompson to 10 years probation instead of the 10-year prison term she said his crimes deserved."

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/05/26/short-prison.html

Gogo messed up justice system.

Anyone get the newest edition of Maclean's (May 29) "Your Tax Dollars at Work - Flight to Hawaii $8000. Cocktails in Paris $7,600. Federal bureaucrats spend billions on travel and hospitality. They say it's tightly controlled. It isn't"

This is probably part of the relocation scam that bloggers uncovered during the election campaign. Why is this just seeing the light of day now, and why are just the bureaucrats fingered here and not the liberal government who was in power and supposedly in charge for the last 12 years? The buck should stop with them. And heads should roll. This spending spree sickens me. Bureaucrats have a culture of entitlement as well, it seems.

and meanwhile, in the socialist nirvana of Grant's Saskatchewan, Kyoto is a BIG deal

"An analysis of provinces and territories reveals four in particular — Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick — have seen their emissions rise astronomically. Saskatchewan has experienced the greatest percentage growth: a 61.7-per-cent increase since 1990"

socialists, gotta feel for them.

Maybe it has something to do with the state of teh highways ??

Worthy article about the Ottawa Press Gallery from Ottawa Watch:

http://ottawawatch.blogspot.com/2006/05/ok-press-gallery.html

Galloway: Blair's death would be justified

LONDON - Maverick British politician George Galloway has claimed it would be "morally justified" for an assassin to target Prime Minister Tony Blair, but he said he was not advocating an attempt, according to a magazine interview published Friday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060526/ap_on_re_eu/britain_galloway

Lorriane... "worthy article" , that's an understatement! It's excellent , thanks.

Governor General warns against sensationalism in Canadian journalism
HALIFAX (CP) - Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean cautioned Thursday against sensationalism and gossip replacing critical news reporting, urging an audience of journalists to remember their civic responsibility.

http://tinyurl.com/ohntp

..meanwhile:...

Controversy: Jean-Daniel Lafond
Both in and outside of Canada, the debate over his documentary is heating up

http://tinyurl.com/mapn6

From globeandmail.com, "Afghan exit strategy involves staying put until 2009: O'Connor", CHRIS MORRIS, Canadian Press:

'Romeo Dallaire, the former commander of the UN peacekeeping mission during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, has said Canada should send 1,500 troops into Darfur, or at least contribute 500 soldiers to a UN rapid-reaction brigade already operating in Sudan.'

I have searched the web and can find no mention that UNMIS has any such thing as a "rapid-reaction brigade".

I don't think Dallaire has any idea what he is talking about. The UN force for Southern Sudan (UNMIS) has the following strength, May 2006:
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/bnote.htm#unmis

"troops 8,034; military observers 635; police 596; international civilian 671; local civilian 1,242; UN volunteer 99"

This is from the UNMIS site:
http://www.unmis.org/english/military.htm

"Of the 10,000 peacekeepers, there will be 750 UN Military Observers (UNMOs), who will carry out monitoring and verification activities in their respective areas of responsibility.

Of the 10,000, approximately 4,000 peacekeepers will make up a protection force, which will be responsible for protecting UN staff, equipment, and installations as well as helping Sudanese authorities to protect any civilians who come are in imminent danger.

Another 4,000 peacekeepers will be involved in administrative and logistical support activities, along with demining and reconstruction work."

If the protection force's main duty in protecting UN assets it can hardly be a rapid-reaction force. Helping Sudanese in only a secondary function.

The reporter, Chris Morris of CP, should do a little more work before taking Sen. Dallaire's statements at face value.

Mark
Ottawa

http://www.cbc.ca/north/story/nor-pang-skull-mystery.html

cbcpravda error. this story says global cooling.

Another excellent article on the PPG

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2006/05/news-with-disclaimer.html

Read what he says about how the PPG prevented a reporter from asking questions.

Mark: I wonder if the good general was talking about the newly formed "Rapid Reaction Brigade"... which is just in its early stages of training and outfitting?

Or... is it this

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?prod=13229&session=dae.21059229.1148673125.RHdcZcOa9dUAABTbysU&modele=jdc_1

Or... is it in reference to the 2003 unit that Canada was supposed to run on behalf of the UN?

Merrill Lynch Raises Alarm on Health of Newspaper Industry (Dinosaur Media Extinction Alert)
Posted by abb
On 05/26/2006 12:36:38 PM PDT · 2 replies · 52 views

Editor & Publisher | May 26, 2006 | Jennifer Saba
By Jennifer Saba Published: May 26, 2006 12:20 PM ET NEW YORK For years it has been said that the newspaper industry is on a downturn. Publishers have always characterized it as a gentle, slow decline, a perception that allows them to take time to figure things out. But a new report from Merrill Lynch's Lauren Rich Fine -- a champion of newspapers -- reveals publishers better get on the stick, because the industry may be deteriorating faster than thought. "I have not completely lost faith," she wrote in a report released today, "but I still think the economic climate... ...
freerepublic.com

Debris Trail: Who knows? But there is no such brigade in Sudan now.

Mark
Ottawa

The Canadian Special Operations Regiment is a rapid reaction force.... so, who knows what Dallaire is referring to.

"wrapped up"... Say, goodnight, Chuck. Enjoy your freedom and be happy, Chuck. We'll now wait for your book. $$$

Crown wraps up case against Guite
MONTREAL (CP) - The Crown has wrapped up its case in Chuck Guite's fraud trial, with the accused saying he will not take the stand or call witnesses. ... cnews

News with a Disclaimer - from http://www.dustmybroom.com/ . A worthwhile read.

Canadian Press

VICTORIA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he wants fixed dates for federal elections.

Harper told the Victoria chamber of commerce the government will introduce a bill next week calling for fixed elections every four years.

Harper says fixed election dates will put an end to governing parties manipulating the timing of elections.

He says the bill will propose the next election take place in the fall of 2009.

British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland-Labrador have fixed election dates.

I'm loving it!

Rex Murphy: "So we are at war." Salute to Rex Murphy and Newfoundland and Labrador. Lest we Forget.

Battlefield Tour Diary
... described the Royal Newfoundland Regiment ’s tragic losses on July 1st , 1916 . ... Tyne Cot – (Passchendael ) the largest Allied cemetery with 12000 . ..

Excerpt:
"So we are at war. We are at war because we acknowledge our own interest in Afghanistan and because as Canadians we see the value of extending, if we can, some measure of liberty and democracy to a people who have not tasted those virtues.

The campaign in Afghanistan can be seen as harmonious with the liberation efforts that Canadian forces, to their honour, were associated with in the far more enormous campaigns of the First and Second World Wars. That, as I see it, is the rationale of our mission in Afghanistan. To the extent that a majority of Canadians accept these goals and fully appreciate and understand them, the mission will have the kind of support outside parliament that is necessary to maintain it. Achieving that appreciation and understanding will take far more, however, than the very mixed effort in parliament last week. For "The National", I'm Rex Murphy." ... voyforums

Government seeks to recover more sponsorship funds

For immediate release

OTTAWA, May 26, 2006 -- The Government of Canada announced today that it is adding $7M to its civil lawsuit to recover sponsorship funds and two new defendants, Nicolas Gosselin and Alleluia, a subsidiary of a company already named in the Claim.

The government is also taking this opportunity to: restructure and format the Claim so that it is easier to understand; provide more details about the allegations; refine the amounts previously claimed ($1M); and comply with the Quebec Superior Court's order to remove certain information from the Claim.

As a result, the government is now claiming a revised total amount of $63M against 30 firms and individuals, jointly and severally. This amount does not include the $1.6M that has already been recovered through settlement agreements.

"This amendment is a direct result of the federal government's commitment to restore accountability and recover misused sponsorship funds," said the Honourable Michael M Fortier, Minister of Public Works and Government Services. "With this amendment, we are now including further allegations of fraud and the Government is showing Canadians that it is committed to protecting their hard-earned tax dollars."

A copy of the Claim for the Recovery of Funds can be obtained from Quebec Superior Court in Montreal located at the Palais de Justice, 1 Notre Dame East, Montreal, P.Q. The Statement of Claim will also be posted on PWGSC's website once it is available in both official languages.

For updates on any developments concerning the status of the financial recovery, consult the PWGSC web site at: www.pwgsc.gc.ca/sponsorship/text/recovery-e.html

- 30 -

How does the CBC describe the actions of a man that was responsible for well over 70 million peacetime deaths?

excesses of his regime.

Lorraine - many thanks for the information. Your posts are always top quality.

Thanks Lorrainne (2:10pm) for the link to the article in Ottawa Watch. No doubt the PPG would blackball Mark Bourrie is they ever read his blog but then again I think he is safe. I particularily like the quote about what it takes to really cover parliment. "Quite literally, anyone of average intelligence, nice clothes and basic hygene can collect it." Perhaps that is why the PPG is so pissed, they realize they aren't qualified.

should be parliament, my spel cheque isn't workin

SoccerMom
This is probably part of the relocation scam that bloggers uncovered during the election campaign......
Keep the faith Our Guys will get to the civil service. Accountability extends to employees as well as elected officials.
And yes the MSM is lazy and incompetent.
Did they give any credit to Ferret for the story or did they pretend it was theirs?
BTW I hope you are not rewarding these clowns by subscribing.

The Black Rod strikes to the heart of MSM!
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/

Check it out!

Some stories from Palestine/Israel that you won't read in the comically biased propaganda rag The National Post:

"The Interior Ministry usually will refuse to register a noncitizen as the father of an Israeli child without a DNA test if the couple married after the wife became pregnant, even though official ministry procedures do not require such a test."

haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719960.html

"The Housing Ministry has requested NIS 32 million in the 2006 budget to provide security for the residents of Jewish enclaves in the heavily Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.
...
Peace Now Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer was furious yesterday over the ministry's failure to keep this promise. "At a time when the State of Israel is abandoning cancer patients, it is giving settlers in East Jerusalem round-the-clock personal security, thereby declaring that the settlers' lives are worth more," he said.

...In addition to protecting the Jewish residents from attack by their Arab neighbors, the guards' job includes escorting the residents to other places, both on foot and by car; guarding public facilities such as schools, kindergartens and the Mount of Olives cemetery; and providing first aid to residents who need it.

haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719963.html

"Rosh 1, the weekly magazine for young teens (girls, mostly), published by the mass-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth, overstepped the limit twice in a single advertisement - once in giving legitimization to pedophilia and once in encouraging young girls to have sex.

The advertisement is for underwear. The model is sprawled in a seductive pose on a sofa, wearing tiny underpants and a tight midriff top. She looks 14, at most. Her eyes are veiled and her lips slightly open. The text that is put in her mouth is unambiguous: "And what will you do to get into my panties?"
...
Rosh 1 is aimed at readers from the age of 10, if not younger. It teaches the girls that panties are there to be gotten into as soon as possible; it teaches the boys how to get into those panties with no effort."

haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719954.html

"Israeli advice on the Mexico fence: be ruthless"

haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=719046&contrassID=25&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=1&listSrc=Y&art=1

"Israel should try to negotiate a long-term truce with Hamas, Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy said Friday, breaking away from a broad consensus in Israel that the Islamic militants must be shunned."

haaretz.com/hasen/spages/720295.html

"So we are at war." Rex Murphy.

The Battle of Panjwai, Afghanistan. ...

Canadians fight, take prisoners in Afghanistan at ongoing Battle of Panjwai
By BOB WEBER

BANZYA, Afghanistan (CP) - Eight suspected Taliban prisoners squatted in the old crater left by a long-ago Russian bomb, handcuffed, blindfolded with duct tape. A Canadian soldier stood over them, rifle ready, and summed up the last 48 hours of what will become known as the Battle of Panjwai in two terse sentences.

"Last night we were fighting for our lives. Today we're taking them prisoner."

For nearly two weeks, hundreds of Canadians have been fighting in the mud-walled villages of the Panjwai district west of Kandahar, facing large concentrations of Taliban militants who - unusually - have chosen to fight rather than fade away. more
cnews

Yes, that Black Rod article on the PPG is really excellent.

It's incredible, that the Press has nothing but their own power on their minds. All the TV news is nothing but Harper 'denying questions'. One station has an interviewer asking young students, who obviously haven't a clue about the situation - "What do you think of Mr. Harper refusing to answer questions from reporters on Parliament?

Wait. That's an outright lie. Harper isn't refusing to answer questions. It's the PPG who are refusing to both ask, and to allow others to ask him questions. It's a power play on the part of the PPG. They insist that they must decide who gets to ask questions. Why? Because they assert, in a blatantly anti-Harper statement, that IF Harper selects the questioner, THEN, he will select only the 'greenest', most innocuous questioner'. PROOF?

But what that statement by the PPG president reveals, is how deeply hostile and biased they are against Harper. They are accusing Harper of manipulation of the press - before he has even done such a thing.

And, as noted, every TV news, every minute of Duffy and Newman, is filled with this nonsense, and false accusations against Harper. You simply can't switch to any channel without hearing some twit saying - Doesn't this show that Harper is a control freak'?

Wait. Why call him names? Why not, if you believe that, simply say ' Harper wants to control X'. Why 'freak'? And furthermore, how about the FACT that the PPG are insisting that THEY ought to control who asks questions?

Has the media defined the PPG as 'control freaks'? Why not? Why do they call Harper such names?

here we go again

Volpe campaign gets big bucks from teen kids of drug company executives

JOAN BRYDEN

OTTAWA (CP) - Liberal leadership hopeful Joe Volpe has received $54,000 in donations from two drug company executives and their wives and kids.

Under a new political financing law that went into force in 2004, corporate donations to leadership contestants are strictly prohibited. But while a company cannot contribute money to a campaign, a company's executives, employees and family members are each entitled to give a maximum of $5,400.

When the law was introduced, critics argued it amounted to a loophole that would allow companies to circumvent the ban on corporate donations.

According to a statement of contributions filed by Volpe with Elections Canada, Barry Sherman, CEO and chairman of generic drug manufacturer Apotex Inc., donated $5,400 to the Toronto MP's leadership bid.

Sherman's wife, Honey, and four children - all residing at the same address - also gave $5,400 each

reminds me of this scandal . . . Joe, ya should pick better friends . . . wondered in what cesspool of the LPC Elie Betito ended up in.

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/003163.html

Vancouver Sun excerpt:
"The 167-person Liberal caucus will hold its annual summer retreat in Vancouver August 21-24 to show the party still cares about B.C. even though former leader Paul Martin has vacated the leadership post."

Note to self: Make sure to take holidays out of town from August 21-24.

May 26, 2006
A Shocking Memorial Day Weekend
By Bill Roggio

A quick note: My Memorial Day weekend will consist of numerous flights. I'll be in Afghanistan by the beginning of the week and look forward to getting out into the field.

Michael Yon's photo and post on the child killed in Mosul. Click to view.

On this Memorial Day weekend, we should take the time to honor the sacrifices of our servicemen and women. They fight hard for our freedom, under very difficult circumstances and at great personal risk and hardship. Unfortunately, the HFM media conglomerate has chosen this weekend to launch "Shock" magazine, and the lead story is dedicated to shocking the audience by showing photographs of our wounded soldiers and drawing parallels between Iraq and Vietnam.

As if that is not offensive enough, the publishers have stolen Michael Yon's photograph of Major Mark Bieger cradling an Iraqi child murdered by a suicide bomber in Mosul, and have placed this image on the cover of the magazine. Michael is a friend, fellow traveler and Veteran. He has taken risks himself to cover the fight against al-Qaeda and the insurgency in Iraq, and has recently traveled to Afghanistan as well.

Register your displeasure with HFM for dishonoring our troops on their weekend, and for their blatant theft and misuse of Michael's work. Blackfive has the details.
May 26, 2006 09:32 AM Link TrackBack (1)
http://counterterrorismblog.org/

Is it not disturbing that as the big red machine falters badly in it's war against the right,the MSM in this country steps forward to continue the battle on their behalf?
It seems the hardcore lefties cannot even mount more than feeble attempts in defense of the MSM's blatant partisanship,although even I have winced at some conservatives' claims of a vast MSM conspiracy,it sounds so paranoid and bizarre.Yet,in fact,as each day passes we are inundated with more and more clear examples of this bias.I am not talking editorials expressing an individual's partisan biases,I am pointing at NEWS items being purposely manipulated to represent an inaccurate impression of the conservatives.Some are no more than partisan attacks veiled as news...a black SUV anyone?
What mental malady would cause so many so-called professionals to act in this manner?Also,not even the most extreme rightie could believe that EVERY single journalist in this country is anti-conservative and is setting aside all integrity to purposely mislead their fellow Canadians.So then,I must ask where the honest journalists are and why do they not speak out against those who defile their chosen profession?
As Harper soars along in the polls,in spite of the MSM's continued subversion,I am left to wonder if the press in general are destined for a shake-up,and ultimately a makeover as they seemed to have painted themselves into a very mean-spirited little corner.

Fred @ 6:28, Excellent post! I was about to post the exact same story! Elie Betito was involved in a Liberal campaign and got caught using some mean-spirited language (IIRC). Now the Libs are getting their supporters kids to donate $5,400 each? And they expect us to believe that a 15 yr old really cares that deeply for Volpe? Yeah, right.

In re: sooz @ 10:27 A.M.

Mary Jo Kopeckne was unavailable for commment.

http://www.ytedk.com/chapter1.htm

Democracy watchdog files complaints against Harper government

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/05/25/democracy-watch.html

An excellent Blog Site and I think Kate is tops. But, I wish some of the posts were gone over for spelling and grammer. , Its sometimes very hard to pick a salient point out of mangled lines

CO
You should pray for more MSM bias against the Right. So far its working for the Right. Who knows what would happen if they started telling the truth!

Not civil war? Uncivil war? "fresh, violent clashes...". Not civil war?

Rule of thumb: When it's denied; it's true. It's civil war. ...

Not civil war
Al-Ahram Weekly - 9 hours ago
Fresh violent clashes between Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip relegated the financial crisis crippling the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its Hamas-led government to a position of secondary importance, at least for a brief period. ... via google news

That would be after the success of their complaint against the Ontario Libs massive lies to get elected. Followed by one of the biggest tax grabs in Canadian history. DEMOCRACY WATCHDOG. Its not Orwellian. Yet.

Remember the giant screaming headlines in the Slop and Pail about how Harper and Ambrose were planning to shank Kyoto? All based on a "leaked secret memo" Guess what(!):

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060526/canada_kyoto_060626/20060526?hub=Canada

Another auto-generated media story goes pffftt!!!

OK ronrob,I'll take the bait....You make an excellent point,but sorry buddy,you need to clean your own back yard before you advise others on how to clean theirs!

the over "the hill" gang, ppg, greg weston et al, don't get it about the internet. they still think they control the news, they control nothing and are looking at losing their jobs!! because they're hand fed lib left monkeys

steve d.,

"Who knows what would happen if they started telling the truth!"

What is this horrible truth! that they would telling? You (and maybe the CIA) are the only ones who seem to know it.

NDP Seeking Evil American Political Advice??

THIS is hilarious - Jack Layton - the mustache pot that calls the Conservative kettle black:

http://soapbox22.blogspot.com/2006/05/seeking-evil-american-political-advice.html

Evidence that Osama and Saddam worked together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqVY04JVqiA&search=osama%20and%20saddam

Interesting video:

The Great Conspiracy.

http://video.google.com/videopla...reat+conspiracy

Did I really read where thugs held a Canadian community hostage, and taxpayers paid the ransom? If so, that is pathetic. I'm sure nutjob anarchists and everyone with a minority agenda in Canada learned something this week about effective tactics. I do hope I misunderstood.

Regarding Kate's aside about American Idol voting, I'd like to add that real elections require people to pre-register, leave their homes and jobs to travel to their polling place, and the under 18 crowd can't participate (repeatedly, as Kate pointed out).

Lorraine,thanks,that WAS worth a chuckle,especially when you consider this demonstrates that they believe they can actually form the federal government within their lifetimes.Poor,delusional,hypocritical souls.

"Did I really read where thugs held a Canadian community hostage, and taxpayers paid the ransom?"
Posted by: Tom Penn at May 27, 2006 12:36 AM

Yup!

Is this guy King or is this guy King? LOLOL
Harper's ploy works. Media comes back crawling

--------------------------------------

Fri, May 26, 2006

Media feud heats up on Hill
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU

National news organizations met yesterday in an attempt to calm the escalating war with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office, but the feud continues to fester on Parliament Hill.

Bureau chiefs from about 30 news organizations agreed to extend an invitation to the PMO to open talks aimed at settling the dispute.

In Vancouver yesterday, Harper dismissed the spat as "inside Ottawa stuff" and said Canadians as a whole don't care about political infighting.

"I don't think it matters to people," he said.
http://www.voy.com/178771/15770.html

Red Star says Harper wants to stay in power until 2009. They is kidding, of course.

Harper wants out of power.

The Star is fibbing again. Those MSM types are such liars. ...

Tories want fixed voting dates
Toronto Star - 4 hours ago
VICTORIA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to keep his minority Conservatives in power until the fall of 2009 as his government moves ahead with fixed dates for federal elections. At the same time, Harper ... googlenews

"Did I really read where thugs held a Canadian community hostage, and taxpayers paid the ransom?"
Posted by: Tom Penn at May 27, 2006 12:36 AM

Yup also! Scroll down on Kate's blog to "Caledonia Escalates as Power Brought Down by Vandals," and read all about it. Pathetic, isn't it? And this is the "kinder, gentler" Canada the moonbats like to bleat on about.

Same old, same old. But did anyone else watch "Mike Puffy Live" last night? Lawrence Martin and Jane Taber seemed to have been a little sobered by what people were saying about them last week, but it didn't tarnish their basic message: that PMSH is treating the press abominably.

But Jane Taber needs to go back to school. Her main thesis was to concede that under both Chretien and Martin there was a "list" of sorts for journalists to ask questions. She admitted that there was a protocol around the press asking questions of the Prime Minister during the Liberal tenure and that this wasn't exactly a revolutionary idea BUT, she continued, eyes bulging, there's absolutely no bias in the press and how could PMSH say such a thing.

I wonder how come Puffy has only Taber and Martin on? Where's a conservative rep from the press? This alone reveals the bias of the MSM and, as I said, Jane Taber needs to go back to school: Connecting the Dots 101.

That to philosophize is to learn to die

One of my outstanding college teachers was English professor and Renaissance scholar Dain Trafton. Professor Trafton had devoted his dissertation to Shakespeare; the only Renaissance writer he ranked in the pantheon with Shakespeare, just a notch below him, was Montaigne.

In Professor Trafton's course on the literature of the Renaissance we read Montaigne's essay "That to philosophize is to learn to die." Talking about it outside of class, Professor Trafton remarked that he thought participation in sports taught the wisdom of Montaigne. He recalled watching a Dartmouth team being mercilessly trounced on the field, yet continuing to perform with a kind of stoicism and detachment reflected in Montaigne's teaching. Professor Trafton thought that the athletes had learned something important about life from their sport.

On Friday evenings Jonathan Last and Michael Goldfarb preview the new issue of the Weekly Standard in their Weekly Standard Newsletter. In last night's Newsletter, Jonathan Last writes in the spirit of Professor Trafton's observation:

I'd like to direct your attention to this amazing story on the AP sports wire. It seems that the sensitive folks in the great state of Connecticut have decided that they need to look after the feelings and self-esteem of high school football players:

The football committee of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which governs high school sports, is adopting a "score management" policy that will suspend coaches whose teams win by more than 50 points.

A rout is considered an unsportsmanlike infraction and the coach of the offending team will be disqualified from coaching the next game, said Tony Mosa, assistant executive director of the Cheshire, Conn.-based conference.

"We were concerned with any coach running up the game. There's no need for it," Mosa said. "This is something that we really have been discussing for the last couple of years. There were a number of games that were played where the difference of scores were 60 points or more. It's not focused on any one particular person."

Some have dubbed it the "Jack Cochran rule," after the New London High football coach, who logged four wins of more than 50 points last year. ..... more
powerlineblog

Re: PMO vs. the PPG

Coyne calls them lazy.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas/story.html?id=b981b03c-9e15-416e-b907-e46c0efbb019&p=1

I call them lazy and biased.

Either way, they need to smarten up or find new jobs.

Journalism isn't sitting on your ass waiting for your blackberry to go off and then putting a Liberal spin on it. Those days are done.

I love the stories about the press having conferences about how to resolve the crisis between them and the PMO. What a joke. I don't think the PM is losing a minute's sleep.

After years of damaging the Tories, the Librano press has outed itself as the Liberal foot soldiers they are. And in doing so, they're cutting their own throats.

From Harper's perspective... where's the crisis? In four months, he's undermined the Liberals' most effective tool. Or to be more correct, he's goaded them into making themselves irrelevant.

Sweet.

Maz2--the same whining was heard when Team Canada trounced some hockey team recently. What do these idiots not understand about 'may the best team win'? What is the point of even practicing if the score is pre-determined? Here we again thave that bogus statement self-esteem raising it's ugly head--it is this mentality that has devolved Canada into a third world state. Education has practiced this for years--no one dare be a rose--we will only churn out petunias--(with apologies to petunias)

Addiction? A myth promoted in 1822 by De Quincey in Confessions of an English Opium Eater. In fact, says Theodore Dalrymple, heroin doesn’t hook people: people hook heroin... more»
http://www.aldaily.com/ (Link).

...

VANCOUVER (CP) - Proponents of Canada's first safe-injection site for heroin addicts say they don't understand why Prime Minister Stephen Harper isn't committed to the facility that appears to have saved lives and slowed the spread of diseases such as HIV.

Harper told a news conference Thursday the Conservative government is still deciding on the fate of the site where addicts are allowed to shoot heroin or use other injection drugs under the supervision of health-care workers.

"I'm not committed to it," he said in Vancouver. cnews

I think a deeper problem with the MSM and PPG and our Conservative government, is that the 'fuss' is revealing that the Canadian MSM have moved, over the past Liberal era, very far from providing us with valid information. Instead, they have moved out of the Information Field and into biased gossip.

We do NOT receive information from the MSM. We received heavily edited, editorialized bits and pieces.
However, the electronic media era is now with us. Many of us find our information, the valid information, outside of the MSM. We see, by this comparison, how very little information the MSM provides us with.

For example, as I keep ranting on about - does the MSM provide us with the truth about the gun registry? It repeats endlessly the registry's value, informing us that it is accessed (hit) over 5,000 times a day. THINK. That means 35,000 times a week. That means 35,000 long gun related crimes per week. But there are only 15,000 gun related crimes PER YEAR in Canada and these are primarily handguns, which have been registered for OVER 70 years. So? Why isn't the MSM informing us?
The 'hits' are automatic. All data bases are computer networked. If a cop checks out the licence plate of a double-parked car, the 'gun registry' is also, irrelevantly, 'hit'.
Why doesn't the MSM inform us?

Why doesn't the MSM inform us that Kyoto is about wealth transference and not about pollution control?
Why doesn't the MSM inform us about the Asia-Pacific agreement which China, a BIG polluter is a member of (it isn't a member of Kyoto).

Why doesn't the MSM inform us that the real argument in the softwood dispute was about our low stumpage fees? Why is it that the majority of Canadians know only that the Evil USA Stole Our Money but doesn't know a thing about 'stumpage fees'.

The real issue is that the MSM focuses on gossip, on trivia, on anti-Americanism, anti-Conservativism and more gossip. Not information. So, it tells us about Harper's weight, clothes, shaking hands with children, it calls him names, it asserts 'what he might do' without proof.

But, it doesn't provide us with any information.

That's the real problem. That 'hissy fit' of the MSM and the PPG is their realizing that they have lost their relevance, not simply with the PMO, but with Canadians.

Why do the MSM not inform us that, even if the UN Security Council authorizes a force for Darfur (unlikely given Khartoum's opposition, supported by China and Russia with their UNSC vetoes), nobody wants significant numbers of Canadian "boots on the ground"? (full text not online)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub/MarketingPage?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FLAC.20060517.DARFUR17%2FTPStory%2FTPInternational%2FAfrica%2F&ord=8553786&brand=theglobeandmail&redirect_reason=2&denial_reasons=none&force_login=false

"UN diplomats say the force [if it is ever sent] is expected to be largely drawn from African, South Asian and Islamic nations so as to reduce opposition to the move in Khartoum, while the United States and NATO would provide logistical support behind the scenes."

So why do the MSM keep quoting Sen. Dallaire's cries that Canada must send lots of troops, without at the same time mentioning the above reality?

Maybe they don't even know it--yet another reflection on their worth.

And why do the MSM keep linking Afstan with Darfur?

Mark
Ottawa

Heil Harper!

Coyne calls his peers lazy in today's column.
He left out biased, but it's a start.
It's time for these guys to take a look at themselves and the way the way they've been doing their jobs.
They're all screaming that Harper is a threat to democracy, and that they're defending what is in peril.
Poppycock.
These people are the ones who are guilty of betraying their responsibility to us. Harper has nothing to do with it.
They acted like Liberals. They're the ones who sat on their thumbs while the Liberals were robbing us blind.
To hear Coyne say it, these people are screaming blue murder because Harper is threating their couch potato existence.
If these people care about the role of a vital, fair media as it pertains to keeping politicians honest, that's great.
But forgive most of us for wondering where you were BEFORE the Tories were elected.

ET, regarding your continued concern regarding the falsely reported 5,000 hits per day on the gun registry, how's about this for an approach...send e-mails to the editors of the major media outlets and inform them of the facts.

If they continue spreading the falsehood, their actions prove either: 1) they don't read their e-mails; 2) they don't believe the facts; or 3) they are blatantly lying.

I'm sure it should be fairly easy for someone who has the time to track down a list of e-mail addresses for editor's...then, each and every lie that is dissembled by their organization can be identified and fed back to them. The only trick is how to expose them after they ignore the facts. Perhaps that's where we advise government officials and give them the ammunition.

Am I the only one who is offended that Captain Nichola Goddard's father chose to criticize the policy of not allowing the media at the homecoming of military coffins during his eulogy to his fallen daughter?

That my heart goes out to Dr. Goddard and his family at this intense time of grieving is not in dispute, but to use his daughter's funeral as an opportunity to diss the government was, IMHO, in very poor taste. (In the same vein, so was Princess Di's brother's diatribe against the Royal Family during his eulogy to his sister.)

I guess some people will say that it's his daughter's funeral so he can diss PMSH and the CPC government if he wants to but, honestly, wouldn't it have been better to have held a press conference after the funeral, sometime this week, at which to criticize the homecoming arrangements?

Apparently, Dr. Goddard spoke by phone to PMSH earlier in the week and did not discuss this issue with him, which tells you something, doesn't it, about his motives? I find it distressing that he would use his eulogy as a bully pulpit to make a political point and, frankly, punching below the belt.

I repeat, I deeply sympathize with the Goddard family because of the loss of their daughter. I just wish Dr. Goddard had not used her funeral to make a cheap political point. There would have been lots of other opportunities at which to bring up his concerns.

Hassle said:"the falsely reported 5,000 hits per day on the gun registry".

Ms. Guay says the 5,000 hits per day is false; the true number of hits per day is 6,500. In fact,"Police forces consult the registry over 6,500 times a day,".

These are consultations: that raises the hits to a higher level of importance/gravity, and more.
Believe her. ...

Friday, May 19, 2006
Hansard excerpts - Question Period- May 19,2006

Foreign Affairs

Ms. Monique Guay (Rivière-du-Nord, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the registry helps saves lives, and that is what matters.

Police forces consult the registry over 6,500 times a day, and they were the first to say that the registry is an essential tool for ensuring public safety.

The minister says he wants to improve safety on city streets, so why is he so dead set against a registry that, as everyone knows, helps meet this goal? ...
http://newsbeat1.com/2006/05/hansard-excerpts-question-_114809655090468118.html

Here is the true tribute to Capt. Goddard.

Long live Capt. Goddard.

Long live the PPCLI.

God bless Prime Minister Harper.

God bless Canada.

Canadian soldiers root out Taliban following 2 days of heavy fighting

The soldiers of 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry swept through the series of intermittent compounds that make up this Old Testament village Wednesday evening.
via nealenews

”Volpe campaign gets big bucks from teen kids of drug company executives”

The York University Foundation: The tail that wags the dog
...the recent decision to locate the Argonaut football stadium at YU was engineered by Argonaut owner and YUF director Howard Sokolowski together with his partner David Cynamon, likely with help from his former business partner Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara (whose brother Joseph is also on the YUF board, chairs the York University Development Corporation and sits ex officio on the Land Use Committee of the Board of Governors), and MP Joe Volpe, whose riding constitutes the center of the UJA community. The direct taxpayer contribution to the stadium ($27 million from the federal government and $ million from the provincial) will flow through the YUF. Another $15 million will come from YU and, thus, indirectly from the taxpayer....
https://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/project-x/2004-December/008361.html

UJA Federation
May 7, 2004
http://tinyurl.com/66fa2

CNN Lies About Iraq Minister's Iran Support

Yesterday CNN ran a story titled: Iraqi minister defends Iranian nuclear program.

Iran has a right to develop nuclear technology and the international community should drop its demands that Tehran prove it’s not trying to build a nuclear weapon, Iraq’s foreign minister said Friday. ...

“Iran doesn’t claim that they want to obtain a nuclear weapon or a nuclear bomb, so there is no need that we ask them for any guarantee now,” Hoshyar Zebari said after meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki.

But according to Iraq the Model, CNN is perpetrating an outrageous distortion:

I wasn’t there at the press conference but I was able to find an audio clip of the same part of minister Zibari’s statement through Radio Sawa, and what he said here is so much different from what the CNN claimed he did (my translation):

We respect Iran’s and every other nation’s right to pursue nuclear technology for research purposes and peaceful use given they accept [giving] the internationally required guarantees that this will not lead to an armament race in the region...

Audio clip available here (Arabic)

Listening to the 2nd version of the story (in Zibari’s own voice) it is clear that Iraq recognizes Iran’s right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes exclusively and is moreover asking Iran for guarantees, not the other way.
via lgf

hassle - I've emailed quite enough editors and journalists about the gun registry fallacy. Nothing.

But, there's something more than just their 'reliance' on someone emailing them. It's their sheer simple lack of reasoning about the situation.

After all, my questions didn't arise because I KNEW that the data bases were all linked. My question about the 5,000 'hits' a day grew out of simple basic reasoning.

1) Are there really 5,000 long gun related crimes per day in Canada? Good heavens!

2) That would mean 35,000 per week!! Is that really the case/
And almost two million per year!!

3) Check Canada Stats. Their gun-related crimes are about 15,000 PER YEAR. Hmmm.
And most of those are handguns.

4) Handguns have been registered for over 70 years, since 1934. Hmm.

The above is ALL that any medium-sized brain with an average reasoning power, requires to figure out that 'something's wrong with that '5,000 hits a day'. But, we get it repeated on and on and on. But THINK! 35,000 gun crimes per week????

And so, I found out the truth. The computer data based are all linked. Check in for a driver's licence, a car registration, a building permit, a tenancy violation - any trivia whatsoever. And the 'gun registry' is 'hit'.

So, it's a blatant lie. My question is, how could any simple reasoning individual accept that 5,000 hits a day?? Just think for one minute..and it doesn't make sense!

But, I have written editors, columnists..and nothing happens. Why?

Even the Toronto Sun must be feeling left out of the "perceived" influential status these days. Adler's column is another wringing of his hands about how PMSH is ignoring the media and the cartoon on the editorial page shows the absolute disrespect they have for the Prime Minister. I have been a faithful Sun reader for years but will not longer pay $.50 for a paper they could not give away when they were priced at $.75.

Hansard excerpts - Question Period- May 19,2006

Ms. Monique Guay (Rivière-du-Nord, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the registry helps saves lives, and that is what matters.

Police forces consult the registry over 6,500 times a day, and they were the first to say that the registry is an essential tool for ensuring public safety.

The minister says he wants to improve safety on city streets, so why is he so dead set against a registry that, as everyone knows, helps meet this goal?...
Hansard via newsbeat1

You know the answer to your own rhetorical question, ET, as do I. Sending an e-mail to the reporter who makes the claim will be a wasted effort IMO, but for an editor to ignore the facts, that points to their complicity in the act of lying. I had read your repeated comments regarding your anger over this issue, but had not read that you had already acted.

Determining the most effective next step is the tough part...who polices the media? The Canadian Association of Journalists has bylaws, guidelines and a code of ethics...but they are so porous as to make them useless. As an example, in their preamble to their statement of principles they state "It is our privilege and duty to seek and report the truth AS WE UNDERSTAND IT, defend free speech ...".

Gosh, that's a good principle...as an example, as I understand the truth, I am the Greatest Canadian that has ever lived!

Maybe PMSH has something up his sleeve...it seemed foolish for him to actually come out and say that he felt the media to be biased against the Conservatives. Maybe he is setting something up...giving the journalists enough rope to hang themselves and then knocking the chair out from under them. That would be too good to be true.

Some astute observations on the founder of Trudeaupia

“The ultimate conformist

- he drifted with the intellectual tide. Ultramontane Catholic in 1930s Quebec; anti-British pacifist in early 1940s Quebec; radical semi-Communist in the late 1940s; Quiet Revolutionary in the 1950s; hippie in the 1960s; multiculturalist economic nationalist Castro fan in the 1970s; peacenik in the early 1980s. Talk about a walk on the tame side.

... His most famous statement is: “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” .
……... His crack about bedrooms came just as the state was invading our private lives in force through a variety of social engineering schemes. ………

….Many Liberals think they are Trudeau’s heirs. The problem isn’t that they might be wrong. It’s that they might be right, and lead us into another era of bold conformity and deep silliness. “

John Robson

http://www.thejohnrobson.com/columns/2006/060425%20NP.htm

Business as usual in Librano Land. I wonder if Jane Taber will have any hard hitting questions for Joe Volpe on this weeks edition of Question Period??

I bet not!!! I'm sure this is merely an example of civic participation by a politically astute group of teens.

I really have to raise my kids better.

Syncro

Professor Dr. Goddard: from his tenured seat in academe. His 15 minutes of fame; a politically charged, partisan smear against Prime Minister Harper, belied by his daughter's sacrifice. Is the "Treason of the Intellectuals"* on his reading list?

...

"I find it troubling that the privacy decision means that we are keeping the press outside the wire, where the bad guys are. I would like to think that Nichola died to protect our freedoms, not to restrict them."
torontostar

*Julien Benda, 1928

Further to how irrelevant the MSM have become, the Guite trial has been left hanging in the ether by the MSM on the West coast. This trial is only the tip of the iceberg, if Guite is proven guilty of massive fraud and theft, as charged, then why aren't the media reporting on the trial. Could it be that by not reporting it then they are guilty of 'aiding and abbetting'. They have set themselves up in the last few months as the opposition to the Harper government. Yet they were not even on the radar screen when the Liberal government was allowing the massive rip-offs and fraud perpetrated by Radwanski, Stewart, Shawinigate, Adscam, relocation, gun registry, deployment, etc, etc, etc,. The MSM have filtered the Canadian News for too long. They have entered the 21st. century and are now redundant.

ural
I didn't say anything about "horrible" truth. Do you know something I don't?
I was just responding to CO and about a hundred others who think the MSM is smearing Harper. I was just saying that if smearing is causing his polling numbers to rise then maybe that is better than the truth? After all politics is all about keeping the polling numbers up. You can't wield power if you can't get elected so positive poll numbers are the life blood of politicians.

steve d: you just outed yourself: "After all politics is all about keeping the polling numbers up."

And that's where you and the Librano$ are ALL WRONG. Politics with integrity is all about doing the right thing and hoping that enough of the Canadian population recognizes what you're doing to re-elect you. Politics with integrity is all about policies that benefit all Canadians, not just the entitled few in your party, your friends, your family, and assorted hangers-on, many of whom are in the media and benefit by cozying up to the party in power.

That's the essential difference between PMSH and the Librano$ and their so-called leadership. And that is the essential fact that the members of the MSM/PPG just don't get. They CAN'T get it because their brains, their raison d'etre, their modus operandi, are all geared to power, entitlement, perks, lifestyle, no altruistic principles beyond these indicators. They are men and women without chests, as C.S. Lewis would describe them: no hearts. Men and women who care only for their own petty and myopic well-being and to H___ with "ordinary" Canadians.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has never been anything other than an "ordinary" Candadian (with, albeit, extraordinary political prowess) is a reproach to all of these power brokers. Their hypocrisy is legion as they cheer on the Librano$ and Dippers holding/wanting power, as they do everything they know how to grab power for themselves, and yet diss PMSH and his party now that they actually have power. And let's not forget that the CPC's power is only at the behest of the electorate.

I'm clear that PMSH is aware of this and that is why he is going directly to the electorate rather then k___ a__ with the MSM. He's got a mandate from the Canadian public to turn around the culture of entitlement and fraud, and he intends to give it his best shot.

Of course he's being attacked at every turn. Too many people stand to lose a whole lot of money grabs, perks, and patronage appointments to want to see him succeed.

Keep well the road, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and all of the members of the CPC. As my dad used to say to me when I was a discouraged, "Don't let the bastards get you down."

Amen to that.

NKOTB; No you're not. Global Nat. reported last night that PMSH said he spoke to him and said he was not aware of any problems. Seems neither media, who created this mountain, nor those who believe their spin are willing to concede that these policies were set to protect families. No-one is saying they can't hold public funerals.

Also reminds me of the the family whose parents were murdered in Mexico and their Lawyer Eddie Greenspan, a faithful Liberal Party supporter, who haven't missed an opportunity to knock the Conservatives. It really underscores how divided this country is and how the media has created that animosity and fed it, plays it. What a shame that such a small country can't get along and be at peace with one another, what will it take to unite Canadians?

Toronto a hard sell to U.S. visitors

American tourists visiting the city are in decline and the Ministry of Tourism is predicting a 16 per cent decrease — 520,000 fewer U.S. residents — will come to Toronto this summer. ...
nealenews

How is shadenfreude spelled/spelt??

Schadenfreude. Coined by Dr. Schaden and Freude in their infamous black comedy of 2006, in a co-production with the Jamestown Players : "How To Die Laughing at Black Humour", now playing at the Holetown Playhouse, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Free admission.
Rated: PG

"Filtering the news" is an apt way of putting it. Maybe that should be the new slogan for a certain taxpayer-funded network: "The source Canadians trust to filter the news".

Reports about Harper's belly-fat pass right through this filter, obviously, while the testimony about LPC mismanagement coming out of an ongoing fraud trial gets caught. Last spring/summer, baseless allegations and reporterly innuendo that Harper was a scheming danger to Canadian values passed easily through the filter, while the actual contents of the Murphy/Dosanjh tapes were caught up.

BTW, Andrew Coyne is on form again, he has an excellent column in today's National Post (or go to Neale news) on the current dispute between the OPG and Harper. Make sure you read it. When reporters had their guns pointing the wrong way on the contents of what the media dubbed "The Grewal Tape", Coyne was the only one to examine not only the actual contents of the tape -- an affront which put him under legal fire from the PMO -- but also at the curious abdication of responsibility of his fellow journalists.

NKOTB: after reading a Nealenews link to a T.O. Star story and a Calgary Sun editorial (criitcal of the Gov.) on this issue, I am more of the opinion that this is a classic he-said/they said situation. Designed to make Harper and O'Connor look like idiots and the poor media as reporters of crossed wires.

I think the press is not informing us, the public, about the Guite trial, because Guite implicates Chretien. The Liberal MSM are protecting Chretien - and the Liberals.

Thanks, new kid, for pointing out steve d's crass and unethical opportunism i.e, 'politics is all about keeping the poll numbers up". No steve, politics is the responsibility to govern a country. Politicians are elected, by the people, to govern.

Governance is a responsibility. That's all it is. It isn't about power - which is what you are talking about. Power has nothing to do with responsibility. It has a great deal to do with corruptness. That's what the Liberals were about. Power and corruptness. Not politics. The Liberal agenda was to maintain their power.

Period. That gave them endless personal wealth and endless 'entitlements', including having the taxpayer purchase the travel tickets for their 'chauffeur-boyfriend', their expensive lunches, oh - and even their chewing gum. That was the Mode of Versailles Life of the Liberals.

Therefore, their interest was in manipulation to 'keep the poll numbers up'. That's why we have: SSM, the gun registry, Quebec, Quebec and Quebec, a reduced military, and, that's also why we have anti-Americanism. You see, focusing only on poll numbers means that you are also completely and totally bereft of policies. They had no policies to apply to Canada. None. So, it was all propaganda (we aren't Americans; we are the greatest country, we are tolerant, we signed Kyoto, we are blah blah...ignoring that we are none of this).

Again, my view is that the MSM have somehow, silently, sunk into irrelevance. They don't provide us with information. Just gossip. The PMO was acknowledging this. The MSM and PPG are fighting to prevent the public from seeing the truth: Hey - they have no clothes!

nkotb
You've outed yourself...again. Mr.Naivte, it is definitely time for you to get real. Harper watches the polls harder than most. He has to. If he makes any mistakes he is back in the political wilderness. Has he, and everyone else in his party, been working these last twelve years so that a bad policy decision will give an opening to the opposition? I don't think so. He will be walking on eggshells unless and until he gets a comfortable majority. Then he can do his dirty for two years before preparing for the next election. That's how it really works. Aren't you glad you know? So when Harper backtracks on, no press at funerals, or figures out how to put out any other flash points well then you will know why.

steve d.
How do you know that 'Harper watches the polls harder than most"? Are you privy to this information?

Has he shown, yet, that he is 'walking on eggshells' or that he is actually doing things for Canadians. That's something that hasn't happened in decades. What he has accomplished in his 100 days is more than the Liberals did in their decades.

What 'dirty'? What do you mean by this? Are you assuming that his policies will be 'dirty'? What grounds do you have for this assumption, or, is it that you have no reasons and are just biased.

Or, rather, are you a Liberal. In that case, yes, indeed, politics is about polls; and politics is not about responsibility; and politics is about 'doing dirty'. Indeed yes, that's true for Liberals.

Question: Do you think Jane Giggles Tabor, Stuffy Duffy or Don Newboy will have Joe Volpe on their shows to talk about how he managed to get a $54,000 political donation from one corporation by flowing the money through the children?

Will Jane Tabor open her interview with Joe Volpe with the question" Are you a crooked politician".

Will Duffy have this drug store chain owner on his show to answer the hard questions like - what';s in it for you? What did Joe promise you? What favours did the Liberals do for you in the past?"-
Will this even be reported on CBC?

The major national media plot sickens....

ET says: "What (Harper) has accomplished in his 100 days is more than the Liberals did in their decades."

What nonsense! Harper hasn't even fulfilled his "five key points." Perhaps you should list all of Harper's "accomplishments."

liberia:

Here is a good link on our new Prime Minister's first 100 days for you:

http://www.stephentaylor.ca/

Scroll down to 100 Days

Ciao!

"Introducing" and "announcing" is not the same as accomplishing.

Yes - Paul Martin would know all about that. He "announced" the same things pretty much for 13 years . Was NOT the same as doing. Profound statement - exactly what we have been saying about the Liberals - talked the talk and all that...

Ah, Lorraine, what marvelous questions. Yes, we know that the MSM won't ask any of those questions of their 'pets'.

Iberia, what a silly thing to say - that 'Harper hasn't EVEN fulfilled his five key points' (my emphasis). Good god - do you expect them to be whisked through parliament in 100 days? But, take a look, and you will see that he HAS dealt with his five points.

And yes, 'introduced' in parliamentary jargon, means 'accomplish'. The bill was 'introduced' in parliament. OK? It was put to parliament. It wasn't talked about on Mike Duffy as a future hopeful goal. The bill, with all its particular points, was 'introduced' or put forth to parliament to approve. That's how motions are accomplished; they are first, written up in detail - hundreds of pages - and then, presented to parl't to approve.

That's an enormous list. I presume you read it all.

That includes
. a budget
. the accountability act (as promised)
. the 'get tough on crime' (as promised) which includes outlawing street racing, longer sentences, etc
. gutting the useless gun registry
. the softwood agreement - after a decade where the Liberals used it, as a political strategy of anti-Americanism
. visits with the troops in Afghanistan, extension of our commitment to NATO, as requested by NATO
. meetings with Bush, with Fox
. new immigration rules, cutting the 'head tax' on immigrants in half
. reduced the GST (as promised)
. child care benefit (as promised)
. enabled Quebec to have a seat at UNESCO

On and on and on. What Liberal gov't has done as much? And, for Canadians. Not for 'the polls'.

Lorraine: I’m not sure that the $54,000 political donation to Volpe’s campaign is necessarily all, or even about Apotex.

If you check out the links to my previous posting (May 27, 2006 12:04 PM) and this one the same names keep cropping up:

http://www.yorku.ca/foundation/our_people.html

"Thanks, new kid, for pointing out steve d's crass and unethical opportunism i.e, 'politics is all about keeping the poll numbers up". No steve, politics is the responsibility to govern a country. Politicians are elected, by the people, to govern."

ET,although I consider you one of the more articulate posters to frequent this site,I must admit I agree with steve d on this ONE point(whodathunkit!).In a perfect world,indeed you would be correct about a party's prime responsibilities to it's country.Alas,the average Canadian has allowed our political system to devolve into it's current unethical state of 365 day a year campaigning,what will you do for me.
I believe the LPC to be only slightly short of evil,and have accused them consistently of putting their own well-being ahead of our beloved country.But to put Harper and the conservatives on a pedestal is dangerous in it's own right.Surely you haven't forgotten the shameful Mulroney years,and understand ANY party in power long enough will eventually lose perspective(R.Klein calls this"dome disease").
Indeed,a governments prime responsibility is to govern effectively,but it is a politicians job to POLITIC,and without winning,the governing will not happen!
I believe it boils down to a matter of DEGREES,how far are they willing to go to win?.We know what dispicable acts the LPC is capable of to retain power,we must also guard against the CPC in it's quest for a majority,stepping out of bounds.
Hey,I respect Harper,think he's done an admirable job and as a western Canadian,I feel a proud part of this country again.But that does not change the fact that party strategists ultimately put winning ahead of most all other matters,the size of the prize makes it soooo tempting.Politicians,as a whole,have a BAD reputation because they have EARNED it.NEVER turn your back on one,no matter his/her party!
Anyways,I thought this ONE comment from steve d was fair,and non-partisan.We should encourage this from him,no?...LOL

Canadian Observer - well, I think that the issue is semantical. You see, 'political science' or 'political studies' is a reasonably credible academic area of research. We have a long history of research in this area, from Plato's totalitarian Republic, to Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, and on, on, to Locke, Hume, Mill, Popper, etc, etc, etc.
And, as such, it is not about 'politics as polls', but is about governance of a society.

The first duty of a politician, in my view, is their responsibility to that 'governance of a society'. Whatever they consider as the 'best' infrastructure, what they consider the 'best solutions' for the well-being of the population, their first duty is to that governance.

The Liberals failed in this first duty, because they focused only on the Secondary Level of politics, which is simply to 'stay in power'. Period. And, as you note, they degenerated to a basic level of corruption which we haven't seen in a very long time.

Now, this second level, the level that requires you to 'stay in power' in order to even accomplish the first level, which is 'governance' can't be ignored. I grant you that. But, it has to be kept, like a wolf at the door, outside of governance. It can't move into the first level and dictate governance. The Liberals did that.
It has to be acknowledged, but, my view is that good governance is not only the first level, but provides its own 'second level', and provides its own ability to 'stay in power'.

Yes, sometimes the governance has to be reduced in effect, especially when dealing with a population like Canada's, which has been brainwashed into a Trudeaupian socialism for a generation. So, you don't introduce bills that call for too deep a change; instead, you practice 'bricolage' and do things, step by step.

By the way, I think it's an error to link past governments with current governments. Mulroney and his Conservatives have very little to nothing in common with Harper and his Conservatives. The similar name (conservative) is a false correlation.

As for encouraging steve d, my answer is 'no'. That's because he just spouts Liberal dogma; he doesn't 'think' and analyze that dogma. Just repeats what he's been taught.

It's not that people are putting Stephen Harper on a pedestal, CanOb, it's that people are finally realizing that blatant shills -- taxpayer funded, in some cases -- for the continued primacy of 80's-90's GTA LPC values have been masquerading as reporters, and that for years they have been taken at face value by decent people. These fakes who made their careers by airing LPC handouts and by labeling opponents of said GTA Liberalism as "dangers to Canada" deserve no sympathy whatsoever for being outed. That's why I commend Stephen Harper in the strongest terms. When reporters start reporting, and stop being gossip columnists and opposition proxies, I'm sure the problem will be resolved. In the meantime, why give people who misrepresent their jobs the right to supplant real issue and real news?

Your blanket statement that politicians have a bad reputation because they have earned it is utterly unfair to Harper. The Liberals -- finally -- have a bad reputation because they, not Stephen Harper, earned it. And it's becoming increasingly clear that the CBC and the OPG and certain clique-y elements of the MSM were aiding and abetting this corrupt culture the whole time, until finally their hand was forced by revelations beyond their control. Those who give them credit for reporting, after the fact, on Gomery are being way over-generous in their expectations, and quite frankly it shows a huge blind-spot about the nature of coverage during the years before the enquiry.

The Librano$ risorgimento is underway; the resurgence is bulging with "the commission's 32 — yes, 32 — task forces". The "Renewal Commission" is meeting with plenary sessions galore.

Is Canada ripe for "Librano$ II"?

"Steered by the astute and studious Tom Axworthy, the commission's 32 — yes, 32 — task forces will study and report on everything from Canada-U.S. relations to the democratic deficit." Adler via voyforums

maz2 - that just shows that they've been running for decades without any policies whatsoever. They haven't been 'governing', which is the first level of politics. They've been 'politiking' or manipulating polls, which is a second level of politics. And that's all they've been doing - manipulating polls.

EBD - very nicely put.

Oh, not Wente, too? Has Wente went wet?

Wente says: "But Mr. Harper has never quite shaken his inner high-school nerd."

Wente knows how to hurt a nerd.

(Who is Wente, anyway? Anyone have her ibs?)

The PM and the media throw a hissy fit

MARGARET WENTE

For the past two years, I've been trying to wangle an interview with Stephen Harper. I've smiled cheerily at him in airplanes. I've grinned at him in hallways. I've left messages with his various communications chiefs (who threw them in the garbage). I've asked his friends to put in a good word for me. I've done everything but send him flowers, but no dice. One time he said, "Hi, Margaret," to me in Quebec City, but that was the closest I ever got.

Now, at least, I have a lot of company. Mr. Harper is boycotting the entire national media. He thinks they're out to get him. ... via yoyforums

On another topic... Inidgo/Chapters/Coles is going to pull Harper's magazine because it features the mohammed cartoons (and funny enough not because they feature anti-semitic cartoons in the very same issue)

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/05/27/harpers-cartoons.html

I can't believe they would cave in to Islamofascists the same week they had holocaust survivor Elie Weisel at their Toronto store signing books.

It's moronic, for God's sake I just bought Oriana Fallaci's anti-islam book 'The Force of Reason' and Ayaan Hirsi Ali's 'The Caged Virgin' at an Indigo, where they were prominently featured next to the stage where they had Elie Weisel.

Why are they banning Harper's over this? It's not about 'respect', it's not even because the magazine offends Muslims. Hirsi Ali and Fallaci (not to mention Weisel) offend Muslims more than Harper's ever could.

What it's about is protecting the infantile sensibilities of uneducated left-liberals. Left-Liberals have been told that the Muhammed cartoons are offensive - so seeing them in the bookstore would piss them off. Left-Liberals don't give a rat's ass about Hirsi Ali or Fallaci - both of whom are non-entities outside of the right, so even though they're vastly more offensive, they're featured and Harper's is banned.

Getting to the point - it's not fanatical islamofascists who are scaring Indigo into 'submission' (pun intended) it's fanatical left-liberals.

Anyhow, whoever is doing it, Indigo should be ashamed, not just at letting down free speech, but at making a really stupid business decision. Hippies buy their books at the Goodwill and they never buy hardcover.

ET,it is indeed semantics.Disagree with your take on past and present conservative parties though,they have more similarities than differences.Anyways,my point was that all politicians,regardless of stripe,must be held to a higher standard,whether they are on your team,or steve's!The wolf you mentioned WILL eventually slip in ANY party's door if they are in power long enough!
As a matter of point,the Reform/Alliance/CPC transformation has already required the party to shed many of it's core beliefs to gain favor with more Canadians and achieve the corresponding poll #'s.You would have to be naive to think they are somehow incapable of justifying further changes in their values or ethics for the gain in polls.Again it is OUR responsibility to keep them in check,regardless of what they call their party.These are POLITICIANS!
Anyways,I hold a similar opinion of steve d,saying that,I've never wasted my time engaging him.But his point had validity.

Indigo is pulling the mag off of its shelves so as not to inflame muslim extremists. We saw how they reacted to the Danish cartoons, its not worth the humour. Innocent people living in these extremist countries die as a result. Its blackmail of violence, but this is what the extremists are all about. We shouldn't egg them on.

ET
A look at Harper's "accomplishments" what a good idea. How about from a different angle, as opposed to the 'blinkers-on' version?

Budget- This was carefully crafted after much consultation, to see what he could get away with or not. He made a deal with the separatists because they said they would vote for the aenemic child care provision, they already have their own in Quebec, as long as they got their UN wedge. It inches them a tad closer to sovereignty. Harper knew he had the votes before he walked into Parliament, that's politics.

Accountability Act- for everyone, except the government. As long as Harper is in there is no need for legislation forcing HIM to be accountable, HE is Harper after all. A halo complex? An Imperial Prime Minister? Something to hide? You pick.

Tough on crime- Thank God he is banning drag racing! Whew! I feel soooo much safer.
He sent those illegals home too! He did whatever it took(ie holding children hostage until parents showed their criminal faces). They were at work. Now the parents and their Canadian children have been shipped back to Portugal. I wonder where Harper got the idea to send illegals back??
Gutting the gun registry- well, lets just gut the LONG gun registry and see how that flies politically. If the polls show we can get away with gutting the handgun registry we'll do that too, maybe.
Softwood- was basically settled during the election but Martin didn't want any controversy, he already had more than he could handle. His man Emerson didn't like his balloon being deflated sooo, Harper phoned him and asked him if he was still interested in being a hero in the softwood settlement. Emerson had already put a lot of work into it and so it only took a minute to realise this may be his last chance to be a hero so he took the bait. This is not politics of course. Harper was looking for the absolute best Canadian for the job and low and behold it just happened to be the last guy who held the position! What a surprise! What a coincidence!
Afghanistan- no politics here. You don't play politics with soldiers. That is much too serious. Harper went to be a cheerleader for the nation. Good thing cameras happened to witness it. Harper was going on the QT but somehow the word got out. As it turns out everybody was there from all the media, so embarassing!
Then extend the mission until AFTER the next election. Then we can extend it another three or so then. This way we remove it as a possible election issue(you know war, anything can happen). We won't mention the five year plan the Americans have put together that we have bought in to(they say five, but most people think ten years). Shhh, don't tell the wimpy Canadians they are going to lose several hundred Canadians to death and injury over those years.
Meeting with Bush/Fox- more than a photo op. but not much more. What can you accomplish in a few hours? You can introduce yourself and ingratiate yourself in any way possible. First impressions are important. "Hello, Mr. President, I'm the guy who said we won't cut and run in Afghanistan,I guess you heard about that, eh? That was me! I thought of that myself! Well, I remember you said it and I really liked it, so, I hope you don't mind me using it?"
Head tax- I like a good head tax, but it shouldn't be too high. Cutting taxes is my mantra!
Reduce the GST- This is part of my promise to Mulroney who is reviled for bringing the tax in. The deal was he advised me how to get elected and I would redress some of the tax pain he inflicted. After all its only right that one Conservative government should help redress injury from previous Conservative governments. I will expect nothing less from future Conservative governments, should there be any.

Steve D says "I will expect nothing less from future Conservative governments..."
Hey Steve, the only thing you forgot was two words: "...I will expect nothing less from future majority consecutive Conservative Governments"
Yes Steve majority consecutive Conservative governments are on their way. It would be good for you to get used to the concept now and I am glad that you have come to the realization that there probably will be futre Conservative governments.
After that rant, your likely tired and need to sit down relax and watch the Oilers beat the Ducks... it is all apart of the vast right wing conspiracy to dominate everything from Western Canada, You do remember on election night how PMSH announced "the West is in...
Daniel
Go Oilers!

Steve D, thanks for your post commenting on Harper's achievements so far. It reminded me of how he has achieved so much more already than the Liberals did in 13 years! Pretty amazing isn't it. Better get used to a PM who acts instead of just talking. Or to quote Foghorn Leghorn "I see your lips flappin boy but nothing's comin' out."

Let me play the slave in a Roman triumph and whisper into Caesar's ear: "Remember, Conservatives, in the last 76 years the Liberals have governed Canada for 55 years, and you for 21."

The idea behind the slave's whispering in Caesar's ear was to keep Casear down to earth. Hope it works for the Conservatives too.

Yeah, we're just getting started. How we go from here depends on the polls and what Bush wants. As long as everyone realises its all about politics as usual, that is, getting and holding power.

What is this obsession Canada's lefties and the socialist media have with President Bush? And then after all the "bush bashing" we see headlines whining that Toronto is so dismayed because Tourism from the United States is down.

Well Duh.

CP/MSM attempting to build sympathy for aliens who have entered Canada illegally.

Bust them all. Throw them out. Deport them.

CP/MSM uses the euphemism "non-status workers" for aliens.

Sounds like the other weasel words: "non-status Indians; euphemism for "Canadian citizen".

Remember "Caledonia": "aboriginal protesters and non-native residents". New-Speak from by the CBC.

Canadian citizens are now "non-native residents'.
CBC must die. Down with the CBC. ..

Do not allow the MSM/CBC, etc., to write and re-write history. Challenge, refute their version(s).

Bloggers: Blog on. More, and faster. ...

Immigrants protest deportation of non-status workers
TORONTO (CP) - Juan Carlos Aranga says he was relaxing in his room listening to music when Canadian border service officers burst in and demanded to see his passport. cnews

There is a good article from the Mohammad cartoon publisher.

May 27, 2006

Europe's Politics of Victimology

by Flemming Rose

"The worldwide furor unleashed by the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that I published last September in Jyllands-Posten,

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/05/europes_politics_of_victimolog.html

Been watching this unfolding story from my home province of New Brunswick with great interest-

http://www.cbc.ca/nb/story/nb-abortiondocs20060525.html

Doctors step in to fill abortion service void
Last updated May 25 2006 02:50 PM ADT
CBC News

Doctors at two different hospitals have offered to perform publicly funded abortions, staving off fears the service might soon be unavailable in the province, New Brunswick Health Minister Brad Green told CBC News in an exclusive interview Thursday.

The hospitals are stepping in to fill a void that could have resulted from the suspension of abortion services at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital on July 1.

Last week, the Chalmers hospital announced its plan to stop performing abortions because its obstetrics department is overworked and understaffed. The hospital performed nearly all the publicly funded abortions in New Brunswick.

The decision would have forced women seeking to terminate a pregnancy to pay up to $750 for the service at the Morgentaler Clinic in downtown Fredericton.

The New Brunswick government refuses to fund abortions unless they are deemed "medically necessary" by two physicians and performed by a gynecologist in a hospital.

Last year, the Chalmers hospital performed 400 of the 404 medicare abortions in New Brunswick, while the Morgentaler Clinic performed approximately 600.

In 2004, Dr. Henry Morgentaler launched a lawsuit against the New Brunswick government, claiming that its legislation denies women equal access to abortions under the Canada Health Act. That suit is currently wending its way through the courts.

I take it that Morgantaler's suit is based on equal access in the light of abortion on demand practised by other provinces, though I can't see how he can win this case when the Canada Health Act justifies medical procedures at public expense only if it is medically necessary, if I understand it correctly. Anyway, it's great not having the Federal Liberals constantly threatening us for not complying with the principles of abortion on demand anymore. What I'm curious about, is whether the Morgantaler Clinic is adhering to provincial standards on abortion.

Green won't say which doctors or which hospitals have offered their services. "That's for reasons of patient safety and the safety of the professionals involved," he said.

LOL,... huh???

You know, steve d, you're, how can I say it, not very 'educated' or 'knowledgeable'. You say the most astonishing things that are ungrounded, non-factual and just plain wrong. Incredible. It isn't that you are Liberal or NDP or anything. You just 'don't know very much'.

A budget must be crafted carefully. Anything less is irresponsible Your assertion that its craftmanship was only 'what he could get away with' is ungrounded, without evidence and malicious.

No, he didn't make a 'deal with the separatistes'. Not about anything. No party wants an election now. The Bloc was open about it; the Liberals and NDP, knowing the budget would therefore pass, could pontificate their empty rhetoric, in that safety net.

No, the UNESCO deal was done with Charest, who is a federalist not a separatiste. Don't be stupid; it doesn't 'inch them closer to sovereignty'. It's UNESCO; it's cultural. And I assure you, Quebec has no intention, ever, of separating. Some of us (myself) wish they would, but, they are economically embedded and won't and can't, do it.

Stop your abusive name-calling of Harper. If you have something of substance to say, say it. But stop with the childish name-calling.

The accountability act is very important - and it includes everyone - and the financial infrastructure. My guess is that you haven't the faintest clue what the document outlines.

Yes, tough on crime. That includes valid jail sentences, longer jail sentences, less 'in the door and out on bail'. It includes funding for more police and RCMP. As well as banning street racing. Don't be insulting; street racing is BIG in some areas, and many deaths have resulted.

Illegals are illegals. Period. Either you want laws or you reject laws. Which is it? And don't tell me or anyone, that it was Harper who was holding the children hostage.

What's wrong with gutting the long gun registry? Don't tell me you are in favour of it??!!
As for the handgun registry, you have been told that it's been in place for 70 years, and doesn't cost billions. It is, however, equally useless at fighting crime. So, are you saying that because Harper only, so far, 'gutted' the long gun registry and not also, the handgun registry, he has earned your deep contempt???

Softwood - my goodness, Steve, you certainly claim that you are an insider! You inform us that it was 'basically settled by Martin'; you inform us that Emerson had it all dealt with, you inform us of Harper's phone call. How do you come by all this insider knowledge??? Tell us! Or, could it be, that you don't know a damn thing and are writing a fictional tale. Hmmm?

How do you know that the softwood was settled during the election? Provide proof. Oh, and provide proof that the reason it wasn't made public was because Martin didn't want any controversy. Proof please, Steve-the-Insider.

Afghanistan. Steve - you don't understand politics. You think it's only about 'polls'. No, it isn't, it's about good governance. You don't know what that means. Harper went to Afghanistan to show his support for the mission. That's not about polls! It's about governance. Do you know the difference?
The media were INVITED by Harper; they went on the SAME PLANE with him. OK?

Afghanistan is a NATO mission. You don't seem to understand this. By the way, the Americans are our good neighbours and your disdain for them shows your ignorance and your naivete.

War is tough, steve. You may, of course, choose to permit and enable fascism to take root in the world, without lifing a finger to help prevent it, or help those people in need. You prefer to stand by and watch fascist tribalism murder innocent civilians? That's your choice, steve.

Again, you are incredible, Steve. The ultimate insider. YOU inform us that the meeting with Bush and Fox was irrelevant, was just a 'photo-op' that nothing was discussed, that no bonds were made, nothing. It's incredible how much inside knowledge you claim to have. Are you really a fly on the wall? You've even told us what Harper said!! Aren't you incredible! You know so much!

Do you know what I meant by 'head tax'? From your words, obviously not.

What's your beef about his reducing the GST? Oh, so now you are saying that Harper has promised to reduce it - to Mulroney? He made a promise to Mulroney? How do you know this, stevie wonder? How do you know all this stuff??? Tell us!

And 'it's about what Bush wants'?? What garbage are you talking?

Your basic problem, steve, is your ignorance. You don't know a thing, not a thing, about political science. You think that politics is only about power; that's possibly understandable if you've been brainwashed by the Liberals, but, if you had only read a few books on political science, gosh, it would have helped.

Your next problem, is your tendency to fictionalize reality. In other words, you 'write the text'; you imagine, you write what you think happened, but, you don't bother to ever, actually use any facts or refer to reality. So, you operate in an ignorant and fictional world.

Know what that means? In Plato's world, it means you are living in a Cave, steve. A cave of your own making, where what you see - the shadow images on the walls - you assume is reality. But, it isn't reality, steve. It's just you making it all up.

Narratives are fun, but reality has to be dealt with. And, that's what Harper is doing. You may not like reality, steve, you may prefer your fictional tales.

ET - there is a good explanation for steve d's misinformation and outright hatred for all things conservative: It has been the topic du jour. He is parroting the elite media pundits from Ottawa who have simply parroted the Liberal party talking points.

He is not alone in this. I believe a whole generation from Chretien to the present have been fed this propaganda - so much so that there is no longer reality to their arguments - they are hate mongers, biased, close-minded and all seem to have the same mantra - recently Harper scary/Bush bad/booga booga. But, over the past thirteen years this same derision was there just with different targets.

We now have so many destructive sacred cows created solely by Liberal dominated propaganda that any who dare question is un-Canadian.

The most recent lies fed to us through the media: Kyoto, Kelowna, Liberal day care, no two tier health care (fiction), Iraq war bad, no deep inegration with the US, even the Ottawa Press Gallery and ....add your own here.

Sacred cows are treated like Gods as they wander through countries of starving people, eating the food the people should eat, pooping on everything and causing disease - but people like our brainwashed friend here still worship them.

Seeking justice. ... Islamic Utopianism. That's the "higher order" revealed to Ahmajihad by the "Hidden Imam": theocratic, tyrannical Utopianism cloaked in the "higher order".

Quote:
"If there is one consistent theme to his actions, it is the concept of seeking justice, reflecting a central characteristic of Shiite Islam."

Iran Chief Eclipses Clerics as He Consolidates Power
The New York Times ^ | 5/28/2006 | MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Posted on 05/27/2006 5:49:32 PM PDT by Dark Skies

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to consolidate power in the office of the presidency in a way never before seen in the 27-year history of the Islamic Republic, apparently with the tacit approval of Iran's supreme leader, according to government officials and political analysts here.

That rare unity of elected and religious leadership at the highest levels offers the United States an opportunity to talk to a government, however combative, that has often spoken with multiple voices. But if Washington, which severed relations with Iran after the 1979 revolution, opened such a dialogue, it could lift the prestige of the Iranian president, who has pushed toward confrontation with the West.

Political analysts and people close to the government here say Mr. Ahmadinejad and his allies are trying to buttress a system of conservative clerical rule that has lost credibility with the public. Their strategy hinges on trying to win concessions from the West on Iran's nuclear program and opening direct, high-level talks with the United States, while easing social restrictions, cracking down on political dissent and building a new political class from outside the clergy.

Mr. Ahmadinejad is pressing far beyond the boundaries set by other presidents. For the first time since the revolution, a president has overshadowed the nation's chief cleric, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on both domestic and international affairs. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1639518/posts

More on justice here:

http://www.acton.org/

Justice: The Most Terrible of the Virtues

The place of justice among the virtues, both moral and theological, has always been a delicate issue. Machiavellians tend to underestimate or deny its central significance. Contemporary religious rhetoric often tends to exaggerate it. Classical philosophy was ever aware of the ambiguity of justice—its impersonality and rigidity. Unless placed within a higher order of “good,” as Plato saw, or of “charity,” as Aquinas understood, justice introduces an unsettling utopianism into any existing polity. ...

ET
You are starting to get it.
You see that the budget was CAREFULLY crafted, so that it would pass a vote. He carefully took measure of his opposition and then crafted a budget that he knew would pass. Is it the budget he wanted? no. Is it the budget he settled for, yes. Politics, its omnipresent. Its not malicious its reality. You have to try to face reality. Harper may enjoy being called shrewd, calculating, even Machievellian.
Those are certainly political realities which were present in his Afghanistan extention. Also in half ending the gun registry. In securing the services of Emerson. Going to Afghanistan was of course a calculated photo op. as was the trip to see Bush and Fox. There are no other reasons for such trips. Nothing of substance was accomplished. Unless you know something I don't.
You didn't know Mulroney was a Harper advisor?
If you were Muroney what would you advise in the way of tax cuts? Hmmm?

Your basic problem is that you are way,way naive about politics. You think Harper bumbles along with no awareness of how his actions or inactions will look politically? You think Harper wasn't attune to the things I spoke of?
He did not bumble into Afghanistan or its extention. Nor did he bumble in to getting his budget passed. Nor did he bumble into nixing only half of the gun registry.
There is political cost/benefit analysis all along the way. Yes, even to the clothes. Notice how he got rid of the vest which showed his paunch. Yes, everything is political and everything is weighed short and long term.
So lets stop being so naive, okay? Harper is a grown up politician who is very, very interested and motivated to stay in POWER. Because power is the goal of politics, now and forever.

Steve d - POWER to some people is the route they take to make positive changes to the country they love.

Wresting power from the people who were destroying the country he loved was probably one of PM Harper's burning motivators. I know that is why many good citizens take on the job of running for election .

Even if they have to put up with trying to make a better country for people like you who , for some un-fathomable reason are still clinging to the sham that was the Liberal status quo.

I seem to recall Paul Martin saying in the last election that he was not rolling out any "new" platforms because things were going so good that he was defending that "status quo."

Like Mr. Harper and his exceptional team of citizens chosen BY citizens we believe Canada can be so much better.

Mugabe seizes black farms to drive his maize economy

By Daniel Pepper in Zhampali, Zimbabwe
(Filed: 28/05/2006)

That was in November. Now Mr Dube, and other farmers like him, have been told that they must sell almost their entire harvest to Zimbabwe's Grain Marketing Board, for a price yet to be determined, as part of Mugabe's drive to boost the nation's supply of the staple food. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1639522/posts

In Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency 9CFIA),acting on behalf of the Ontario Egg Producers' Marketing Board,is destroying the livelihood of Shawn Carmichael, his wife, and six children.

These actions by bureac-rats are paid for by the consumers/taxpayers of Canada.

Canada is Zimbabwe-North. ...

Press Release

The CFIA is continuing to persecute, intimidate and harass Shawn Carmichael in their dishonest attempt to shut down his business, as is evident from the attached documents from Judith Wilcox.

Following the meeting between CFIA and Shawn on May 9, the CFIA inspected and rated Shawn's grading station as a grade"A" on May 11, 2006. The following week on May 16 and without further inspections the CFIA suspended his grading licence. Although Shawn's has requested a subsequent reinspection the CFIA has refused to re-examine and inspect Shawn's grading station.

Although the CFIA is camouflaging their deceit, it is evident they have a blatant disregard for justice and due process. While Shawn and his Lawyer have been acting in good faith, clearly the CFIA is negotiates with a dishonest hand, and stacks the bureaucratic deck with deceit. The terms and conditions agreed upon at a meeting between CFIA officials and Shawn Carmichael with his lawyer have been breeched and disrespected at every opportunity by the CFIA.

On Monday May 29 at 10:30 am Shawn is to appear at a tribunal hearing regarding the cancellation of his egg grading license, which if successful would terminate his business.The hearing will be held at the Southway Inn located at 2431 Bank Street (at Hunt Club). The OLA will be in attendance and encourages all members to attend and show their support for justice and due process.

Randy Hillier
President, Ontario Landowners Association
RR 3 Perth On
K7H 3C5
Tel 613-267-6661
Tel 613-257-7968
Fax 613-267-6932
randy@ruralrevolution.com
http://www.ruralrevolution.com/website/

___________________________________________________________

Lorraine
The scandal was discovered long before the last election. It was investigated by a Conservative, Gomery. There was litigation ongoing before the election.
Harper brought his platform more to the centre philosophically. It was a less ideological Harper and a Liberal party that people wanted to slam down that brought Harper to this point.

The idealism has to take a back seat to what is required in the real world to attain power. It may or may not be part of the mix at the beginning but it cannot remain so. You have to sublimate your personal aims and ambitions to the degree necessary to gain a seat in parliament, then become leader of your party, then Prime Minister. If you look at what Harper was saying twelve years ago to what he is saying now will show a move to the centre. If he governs from the centre and does a good job he will remain in power. That is what he wants, power. He will change, moderate his five points as needed to remain in power. That is THE principle that rules.

Lorraine,

"... outright hatred for all things conservative ... parroting the elite media pundits from Ottawa ... hate mongers, biased, close-minded ..."

Do Conservatives actually think and talk like that in real life, or do they use such language only in blogs? Please assure me it's the latter.

You know, when encountering a sacred cow, the only thing to do is to kick it in the ass. If it is truly sacred, it will turn the other cheek.

steve d- Stop pontificating. Stop informing us that you know 'what Harper thought'. You don't.

Thanks for your comments, Lorraine. Yes, steve d. is a typical example of someone brought up in the post-Trudeau era. He is incredibly ignorant of political theories, ignorant of political and social infrastructures - and - arrogant. I find his constant assertions that He Knows What Harper thought, quite astonishing.

Yes, steve d, I know a lot more than you do. AND, I don't talk about what I don't know. You see, I wasn't there at the meeting with Bush and Fox. So, unlike you, I can't say what was and what was not accomplished. You weren't there, and yet, you arrogantly say that you know! Incredible.

No, I don't think that Harper 'bumbles along'. I think he knows exactly what he is doing. That's called 'governance'. You don't know what that means. For you, the term 'politics' only means 'polls'. That's ignorant. Read some books on political theory. And please, stop informing us that You Know What Harper Thinks. You don't. And, you don't know enough about political theory to even guess.

Oh, good god, 'Machiavellian'. I'll bet you've never even read Machiavelli. You haven't a clue what it means.

Incredible. So, all of Harper's trips are just about 'photo-ops'. No, steve. That's Martin and Chretien. Remember how Chretien dealt with Mad Cow Disease? He had a photo taken of himself eating beef. How did Chretien deal with SARS? He, at great taxpayer expense, flew the cabinet to Toronto to have a meeting there and take photos.

Steve- not all politicians are like the Liberals. Some GOVERN; that's different from 'polling'. You don't know enough about political science to differentiate the two. Again, do a bit of reading.

No, it's the Liberals who are interested in power. Some people, steve, actually care about quality. Some people have integrity. Your deep cynicism is sad, but is, I supposed, a legacy of the Chretien/Martin years - where there was only one agenda: Power.

steve d.,

"Gutting the gun registry- well, lets just gut the LONG gun registry and see how that flies politically."

Seems to be you thought about this registry and came to to conclusion it didn't make sense ... and you posted this. Are you saying that you are smarter than most dippers?

You know - for once I wish people would look at government policy as good management or sound strategy for the better good than as something from the left, right or middle.

What well managed company or organization ever makes decisions based from some kind of ideological box. Sound decisions based on sound research or realistic attainable goals should be the norm.

A good leader is decisive, clear minded and focussed yet able to be open minded enough to change direction when it is the best for the outcomes.

Stephen Harper did not choose his team members - Canadians did in the election. So now he has to bring all of these people from diverse backgrounds and ideals and many of the strangers together to form a good team. That is even difficult when you get to do the hiring yourself.

A team that has to represent a country of 33 million people with incredible diversity not to mention sometimes almost polar opposite needs and wants in the various regions is also a challenge.

A team that because of the "conservative scary booga booga" defamation of more than a decade has to be even more cohesive and adept at addressing the needs of a diverse nation.

For anyone to take this on I can only guess that there is a motivation much much more powerful than power itself. It may be trite but making a difference for the good of your country is still the most powerful motivator and I believe Stephen Harper is driven by that.

He never wanted fame, notoriety or glory. He is not after wealth. But he is as power hungry and driven to clean up the crap that has been going on to make a difference for the short and long term.

Let's give him a chance...so far this young man has been impressive and his team is also getting their bearings on their portfolios. The obstacles are immense with the rot of corruption and entitlement deep in many of our institutions. It took years to corrupt and it may take a while to clean it up.

But, at last someone is trying instead of pretending that everything is okay.

Re Abortion; yes it is an interesting situation in New Brunswick. I do not agree with abortion, detest having my taxes pay for repeated mistakes, but do realize that everyone deserves at least one mistake.

I saw the April 24 issue of Macleans yesterday, front said "You smoke, drink or eat too much. Do you deserve the same care as everyone else. Some doctors say no". This got me thinking about abortion and even un-safe sex. For one how can a doctor legally not treat someone for the other lifestyle choices, but it is illegal to refuse an abortion? Also is not un-safe sex a choice that affects your over-all health? Are they going to start refusing you care if you don't use condoms?

Steve d- it is the long gun registry that has been the problem all along. The handgun registry ahs been around for more than 60 years. The Conservatives have NEVER said they wanted that terminated. But, now they are giving it back to the RCMP to manage - where it belongs.

It's pretty obvious, agitfact, that the lefties you know, either the steve d's or the Libs, Dippers, members of the MSM, you fill in the blanks, invite you to their parties and treat you nice, otherwise you might "get" Lorraine's references to the "... outright hatred for all things conservative ... parroting the elite media pundits from Ottawa ... hate mongers, biased, close-minded ..."

I figure steve d. is getting a first-rate education on this blog and it isn't costing him a thing. You've got good teachers, steve: ET, Lorraine, Maz2, Canadian Sentinel, Canadian Observer, etc.

Now, all you have to do is LEARN.

Indigo has pulled all copies of the June issue of Harpers Magazine from their stores, apparently because it contains the famous cartoon graphics of Mohammed.

I sent their customer service an e-mail as follows:

"Just read about your craven cave to Islamic extremists.

In the past I have spent upwards of about $750 per annum in your stores (some of what I spend is deductible from my income for tax purposes so I can track it at least in part.)

In future I will deal with one (or more) of your competitors that is not an organization of cowards.

It certainly is surprising that a bookseller would by an active supporter of censorship and self-censorship at that, but I suppose it takes all sorts of a**holes to make up the world.

If others of you agree with the reasons for my action you might want to send your own e-mail expressing your views. The e-mail form for Indigo customer service can be found at "h++p://www.chapters.indigo.ca/contactus".

There may be a better e-mail address to send your comments but I was unable to find it.

Steve d says: "If you look at what Harper was saying twelve years ago to what he is saying now will show a move to the centre. If he governs from the centre and does a good job he will remain in power. That is what he wants, power. He will change, moderate his five points as needed to remain in power. That is THE principle that rules."

The reason many people find Harper scary is because of what he said in the past. Currently, he appears to have moderated his outward beliefs. But has he really? Harper is smart enough to know that he could never get elected promoting the neocon agenda he has supported for the past 15 years. So he had to outwardly change in order to get elected.

Even though he ran against a corrupt government with a useless leader and with very positive coverage by the msm during the election campaign, two thirds of Canadians voted against the conservatives. Now, he is trying to keep tight control over his caucus and the media message in order to ensure a majority in the future. If there is a conservative majority, that's when the real Harper will appear.

Why does he want power? No doubt he'll say (and many fawning commentators here will parrot) because he wants to help his fellow Canadians. The reality is that even if a politician truly believes this, he is first beholden to the special interest groups that got him into power, then to his cronies and their causes, and finally to the public (especially before an election). That's the way it's always been, and that's the way it will always be.

Steve D
You really don't have a clue when it comes to the gun registry do you? Hand guns have been registered for 70 years as have been registered weapons and others that have required licences to own. What the long gun registry did was brought a whole different class of firearms into the registry with no neccessity other than Liberal pandering to a feminist constituency after the Montreal Massacre which would not have been stopped even if this registry had been in place at the time because the weapon that the shooter used would have been restricted and would not have been registered as a part of the long gun registry.
Nobody has been calling for the dismantling of the handgun registry or the laws to do with safe storage etc. It was the creation of the long gun registry that cost a billion dollars to create a new class of criminal in the country because they didn't register their squirrel guns, deer rifles, or their shotgun that they hunt ducks with. These people were innocent and had done nothing wrong. The costs balooned from 2 million dollars estimated by then justice minister Allan Rock to a present 1 billion dollars. Just think what could have been accomplished in apprehending and prosecuting REAL criminals with an extra 1 billion dollars in the system. Already Stockwell Day has sent 10 million out of the registry into fighting crime. Things are improving. You will not see anyone asking for the handgun registry to be dismantled. It is a whole different matter. Speak about the things you know and understand Steve, you obviously don't understand the gun registry
Daniel

ural
I don't call conservatives dippers. There have been a few tippers though.

ET
Harper either thought or bumbled. I prefer to think he thought. There are only a small number of possibilities for a politicians actions. If you think he can get a lot accomplished by climbing on monuments with "the guys" well, then you will enjoy Disneyland. Meetings of substance between political leaders typically are months in the making. They have an agenda that both sides have agreed upon is important. Bush included Harper because he wanted to signal to Harper that he was pleased to have a conservative government in Canada(read: they will find it easier to get their way). Bush has been very happy with Canada lately. VERY happy. Norad, softwood, no loosening of our drug laws, voting on gay marriage, you name it Bush loves it. Thats why Bush smiles so broadly when Harper is mentioned its like Canada is America.
You can grow up any time on this bs about governing. Thats for elementary school. Governing is what happens after the advisors have looked at the polls, had a meeting and then give you the cost/benefit of going ahead with plan A or plan B. It is not done by principles, or feelings, or magic, or leaps of faith. It is the art of the practical and the possible.

If you govern too far ahead or too far behind where the public is you will not be elected. If you don't remain informed as to what the mood of the people is then you will lose power. It is not rocket science but it is common sense.
I noticed how Harper has changed his mind on allowing the press to cover military funerals. He is responding to reality and adjusting accordingly. His principled stand of keeping the media away from military funerals has met with reality and found out of sync. So he will change the policy. He wants to remain in power so he will make adjustments as necessary. He can have his principles as long as they are in sync with what people want. That is how he will stay in power. If he listened to you and Lorraine he would have no chance for re-election. Apparently he has political advisors who are keeping him attuned to how important it is to compromise when necessary in order to stay in the game.

Steve d- on the covereage of the returning caskets - Stephen Harper has said all along that it was for privacy of the families. When the four were returning one of the families wanted privacy. I heard him say it twice on CPAC. I never heard those clips used on TV nor did I read anywhere but on BLOGS his statement. The 'story" that this was "Bush-like blah blah " was just too juicy to be waylaid by truth or fact. And, of course, because it was about those favourite persecuted power mongers - the media.

Now, of course, you call this a flip-flop. He has the exact same motive - respecting the wishes of the family. And he said he spoke to the female soldier's father and he never mentioned it to him.

New Kid,

for the record, I neither get invited to nor attend parties of any political stripe or colour. I do not now belong to and never have belonged to any political party.

I do, however, take politics seriously, because it is played as a mug's game in which parties vie for power (and spoils,) and the voter is lied to regularly for political purposes. And I do not knowingly accept lies.

If you are convinced that Harper is the pure leader who will act only in the interests of the country without fear of or favour to any particular interests, I hope you are right. I have never seen such a politician before, and am not confident that I ever will. But my eyes are open.

Can't speak for Steve D, but having read the comments of your designated "teachers" over the last few months, I would consider most of them as a deterrent to the learning process. Hearing allegations rotate in Conservative prayer wheels is not much of a learning experience. I prefer facts and reasoning to bold assertions and ad hominems.

agitfact: proof, please, of ad hominems on the part of the "teachers" I named. Bold assertions, backed up by facts, are exactly what I'm looking for, and is exactly what's needed in our political discourse. Canada is awash in wimps who, because of political correctness, are afraid to even whisper that the Emperor has no clothes.

I love the guys/gals in the crowd who stand up, point, and shout at the top of their lungs, "THAT GUY'S NAKED; HE'S NOT WEARING ANY CLOTHES!!!!" I'll take them anyday over the historically challenged cowards who see that the guy's naked, but won't say it because he's black, or gay, or green, or yellow, or male, or female, or a cross dresser, or comes from a disadvantaged part of Canada or from an historically underprivileged group, blah, blah, blah...

Unlike steve d. these "teachers" give examples of what they're talking about, they back up their claims, and they refer the reader to articles that might enlighten. You might take a page from their book, agitfact, because you could learn a thing or two from them as well.

New Kid,

start with Lorraine's "... outright hatred for all things conservative ... parroting the elite media pundits from Ottawa ... hate mongers, biased, close-minded ..." and work your way back through the comments.

I do make honourable mention of Observer, who does tend to seek a balance, and Maz2, who posts a lot of interesting stuff, but loses points in editorializing. No point discussing individual merits. As you note, I have failed to learn from them.

By the way, I share your views on political correctness, but this may be a case of politics and politicians merely being cowed by a vocal minority, and going along with it to get or protect votes.

Maybe the fact that you have never gotten involved in politics is part of your problem. If your only source of information is from the outside looking in and the only source of that is the media then it is perfectly understandable that you have a lopsided view of the political process and political motivation.

Every citizen can and should get involved in the process - even at municipal levels. Help good candidates get elected; volunteer for civic boards; volunteer for constituency work raight at the grass roots level. That's where policy comes from. The people.

I got involved as a young person. I saw enough of the federal Progressive Conservatives from the inside to know when it was time to rip up my membership card and root for an alternative.

THIS Conservative party is NOTHING like the one that Joe Clark and his minions ran to the ground. I also saw the Liberal party from the inside in working for a candidate I thought I respected. I saw her get "turned" after a few years in Ottawa and was even privy to some coverups in the constituency that stunk to high heavens.

I have been involved provincially and, in fact, married a politician who is the most honest individual you would ever hope to meet. Running for office is a huge financial sacrifice for many - the motivation to make this a better country and make a difference for fellow citizens is real and I believe that it is reflected in my current Conservative MP and in our new Prime Minister.

Actually, some of the most cynical about the federal Liberals are people who have seen the rot on the inside.

So, get involved - perhaps you will get a broader view of the world than through the narrow lens of an elitist baised ego driven media.

Steved - Stephen Harper is a leader - something your party wouldn't have a clue about what with all the dithering we have had over the past several years, which explains why the comments from you and other lefties are becoming increasingly hostile and denigrating into name-calling and parroting the liberal "scary Harper" spin.

Get used to it Stevie.

Lorraine, this should sum up the Liberal Party of Canada and why some are hell bent on following them -

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
- Joseph Goebbels

Here's the full quote:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/-if_you_tell_a_lie_big_enough_and_keep_repeating/345877.html

I think the problem with steve d, apart from his complete ignorance of political theories, is his cynicism. In his view, politicians are simply a corrupt and evil set of gangsters. Period.

I don't think he is saying that the Liberals are good and the Conservatives are bad; he is saying that all politicians are complete gangsters and out for only one thing - personal power.

This is his basic mindset; he sees everything through this perspective. Any fact, any issue that doesn't fit with this perspective is either ignored or deformed to fit into the perspective. That perspective, that all politicians are gangsters, trumps all reality. Rather sad, but it is impossible to debate with someone who views the world via such a bullet-proof and thought-proof screen.

Lorraine,

lack of partisan dedication does not equal political ignorance or innocence.

You recommend the municipal level. For three years, I was one of my ward councillor's numbers crunchers for draft city budgets of around 2B, and have seen polictics at work. I call the game "pass the bill" - arrange whatever benefit you seek (from development of your land assembly to individual services,) and pass the bill to the general public.

I will never have the opportunity to see budgetting at the federal level, but would not be surprised to find some of the same machinations.
The perpetual slips between the platform/policy cups and the actual lips have been education enough so far.

New Kid,

another example of the ad hominem teaching method we discussed last night:

"it is impossible to debate with someone who views the world via such a bullet-proof and thought-proof screen." (ET)

No, agitfact, you don't understand 'ad hominem'. You are making the error that a criticism that points out problems in individual perspectives is 'ad hominem'. That's incorrect.

An 'ad hominem' argument is a tactic used to deflect the argument from the issue. It stops the discussion about the issue, and instead, starts up a discussion about the personal characteristics of the individual. These personal characteristics have NOTHING to do with the topic of discussion.

So, if we are discussing the gun registry, and someone is in favour of it, and I want to reject that favourable view, ..I ought to discuss guns, violence, etc. Right? But, what if I instead try to reject this favorable view by instead attacking the personal characteristics of this individual who is in favour of it? I say: 'Oh, sure, he's in favour of the gun registry. Sure, he's someone who drinks too much; he's gotten stopped by the police for drunk driving, he's also had parking tickets...and.."

That's an ad hominem argument. It DIVERTS the focus of the discussion from the issue (gun registry) and attacks the person's support for the gun registry, not by dealing with the issue (gun registry) but by denigrating him personally, as a 'drunk'. Get it?

In steve d's case, the issue is his insistence that all politicians have only one agenda: power. That's not diverting from the issue. It IS the issue.

It's focusing on the characteristic of steve d. that makes it impossible for him to understand politics as 'governance' and to view politics only as 'polling for power'. Criticizing this perspective is hardly ad hominem. It's a valid criticism of his limited view of politics.

Good God, ET, if you were any more full of yourself you'd explode.

Does that count as ad hominem?

So you've read a selection of the Greeks and some extracts from Burke, and "taught rhetoric for twenty years." (Where, for crying out loud?) Your "refutations" of Steve D. are so many smug assertions about his character ("cynical," "Trudeaupian," etc.) And you have the gall to whine about ad hominem argument?

Dawg, I'm not whining about ad hominem. I'm explaining its correct use - versus those people who mistakenly think that criticizing anyone is 'ad hominem'.

No, your characterization of me isn't ad hominem. It's an insult. You aren't arguing anything. Just insulting.

No, my refutations of steve d aren't 'smug assertions'. That's ad hominem; you are ignoring my criticism that steve d is locked into a closed perspective and instead, denigrating me rather than focusing on the issue - which is whether/not steve d is locked into a closed perspective. My conclusion of 'cynical' is a valid and grounded conclusion.

You don't understand what an 'ad hominem' argument is, and what a conclusion is. IF I conclude that steve d is cynical, just because it is an 'unpleasant characteristic' doesn't make it ad hominem.

Do you realize what you are saying? You are saying that no-one can say anything critical about anyone! Because, according to you, that's ad hominem! Kindly check up the meaning of the term.

I conclude, again, that steve d is cynical. That's the issue. I conclude that you, dawg, don't know anything about the formal or informal fallacies of argumentation. That's the issue. Neither are ad hominem. They are valid conclusions. The fact that they aren't 'praising' but 'critical' conclusions is the truth. Are you interested in the truth?

Your conclusions, at least about me, are incorrect. But no matter.

Did you not, a very short time ago, refer to a simple question by Jane Taber, viz., "Are you a bigot?" as ad hominem? And tried to argue that this question contained a major premiss to the effect that Morgan was a bigot?

That was, to put it mildly, questionable. But if you want to make that kind of assumption, kindly do not shift the goalposts in your description of Steve D. By "concluding" that he is cynical, you have drawn attention away from any future arguments he might make to the character of the arguer. You have, in other words, made broad assumptions about his political standpoint and stowed him away in a convenient box.

Now, from where I sit, that's classic ad hominem. Of course people can be critical of other people: it's only ad hominem if this is intended to deflect attention away from an argument to the arguer him- or herself. (Technically ad hominem means an appeal to prejudice or emotion instead of reason, but the other notion is the more popular one.) You might call this a "conclusion" instead of a premiss, but the net result is exactly the same. We don't have to listen to Steve D. because he's a cynical product of the Trudeaupian era. He's locked into a closed system. What a way to dismiss his arguments!

Caution. Wear hipwaders when visiting islamonline.net

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2006-05/26/article02.shtml

Denmark Condemned for Mishandling Cartoon Crisis

"The government's management of the Muhammad (cartoon) affair was a bigger problem than the caricatures themselves and the prime minister ... should have entered into dialogue with the Muslim ambassadors," said the government-sanctioned study, a copy of which was obtained by Jyllands Posten, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP)."

And...

"The study said that the Danish government has not proved forthcoming and responded negatively to Muslim bids to break the standoff.

"Denmark, in practice, did not want dialogue," said the Danish university researchers who wrote the study.

"It did not acknowledge the points of view of the other party (Muslim nations) and ... saw being open to dialogue as compromising its own values."

Danish Muslim leaders had taken pains to settle the crisis, but they were given the cold shoulder by the government.

They then took their case to the Muslim world, embarking on a multi-leg Arab tour.."

Leftie debates usually end up something like this:

Petulant fatso Harper extremist Bush Buddy American fascist dictator flip flop control freak radical muzzled bigot evangelical Christian scary destroy Canada trash Kyoto bash courts slash day care destroy environment whiney cry baby suck it up most people voted against you not for you minority acting like a majority eats babies war monger hates equality rights booga booga.

How did I do?

Nope. you're wrong, dawg.

An 'ad hominem' argument is not about an appeal to emotion rather than reason. That's the basis of very many of the informal fallacies and not simply ad hominem. My definition of ad hominem as a diversionary focus on the lack of merit or circumstantial situation of the arguer rather than the argument, is not 'the more popular one' but is the only valid one.

Taber's opening question of 'are you a bigot' is 'ad hominem' because it follows this format. It is an unanswerable question, because there can only be subjective, self-defined assertions of 'yes' or 'no'. A self-definition is unacceptable in any argument.

The conclusion of the validity of these 'yes/no' answers has to be objective and outside the realm of the person who answers. Therefore, Taber, in asking this unanswerable question, was attacking Morgan. So what if he had tried to protect himself and said'no'? He shouldn't have been put in the position of having to protect himself from fallacious assertions. And again, a self-definition is not sufficient proof. So, his saying 'No I am not.." is insufficient and therefore irrelevant. Taber was attacking him rather than the issue of the Liberals/NDP utterly fallacious rejection of him. If she wanted to be a good journalist, she should have gone after the truth of this. Not ask an unanswerable question.

My conclusion that steve d's political perspective is cynical is not ad hominem. I'm talking about his political perspective, which is, that all politicians are 'out for power'. That's a cynical perspective. No, it has nothing to do with any 'future arguments'. You obviously don't understand the term 'cynical'. Look it up.

Yes, he's locked into this perspective. That's a conclusion. And yes, I dismiss his political conclusions because he can't move outside this box into which he has put himself- that all politicans are only 'out for power'.

The fact that you can't see this analysis - is your problem.

Hey, wait a minute. That's good argument, to be countered with the superior logic of:

Flapjack Layton cheesy moustached commie Islamist peacenik apologist simpleton idiot radical pro-abortion anti-life godless socialist take over the country destroy business over-regulate most people voted against you tree-hugging granola munching Chardonnay sipping lived in subsidized housing latte-drinking smiling Jack asinine popinjay pontificating self-absorbed glutton for attention worraworraworraworra

Happy to help out.

I'll toss in my two cents on the ET / Dawg / Steve D. debate...not that I was invited, but what the hey! I will admit that I AM a cynic and that, given the historically poor performances of many Canadian politicians, I am cynical about them ALL. Once burned, twice shy.

On that point (and that alone), I would tend to support Steve D's alleged cynicism towards politicians. I like what I see from Harper and the new government and wish him God's speed...but I will keep a watchful eye on him. As said before, "trust but verify". A healthy dose of cynicism regarding Canadian politics is a good thing, IMO.

I don't see this attitude as necessarily "close-minded"...just cautious.

ET, I enjoy your postings and agree FAR more often than not with your comments but if I may say so, you DO come across as smug and self-righteous at times...I'm not sure I've ever read you admitting that you may have been wrong on any issue. We're ALL only human and "to err is human". I don't wish to cross swords with you and I do not mean any of this as an insult... it's just a friendly observation intended for positive purposes.

My definition of ad hominem as a diversionary focus on the lack of merit or circumstantial situation of the arguer rather than the argument, is not 'the more popular one' but is the only valid one.

You're wrong, unless you dismiss Fowler entirely: "calculated to appeal to the individual addressed rather than to impartial reason." But I will concede that the current view is pretty well universal.

But on Taber, you are simply, demonstrably wrong. Of course the question is answerable. Morgan had been called a bigot for days, or, rather, views were attributed to him that might fall into a definition of bigotry. I have already indicated some possible ways this question might be answered.

You have failed to demonstrate either that Taber really believed Morgan was a bigot, or that Morgan was incapable of answering the question. A yes or a no has nothing to do with self-definition, and everything to do with received notions of what constitutes bigotry.

Regaring Steve, placing your opponent in a box of your making, defining his character as this or that, is a way of dismissing his arguments. It's ad hominem, by your own definition, and your denials do not make it less so.

My gawd, dawg. You simply don't get it.

Dismissing someone's arguments as invalid isn't ad hominem! If I say that X-person views society within a Marxist ideological perspective, this isn't 'a way of defining his character'! It's an explanation of his ideology! Steve d's perspective of politics is that of a cynic! Don't you know what that means? Do you know how many books have been written about the politics of cynicism? That's not ad hominem.

And no, Fowler's isn't a source for critical thinking. Your Fowler's definition is NOT valid for ad hominem. Check out an online logic site for critical thinking and informal fallacies. Not Fowlers. That has nothing to do with logic.

And Taber's question is not answerable with any validity. And, of course a 'yes' or 'no' answer IS self-definition.

I'm not interested in what Taber believed; I'm interested in whether/not she was behaving as a professional journalist. She wasn't. That question is ad hominem. It ignores the issues: 1)the appointments commission; 2)the vetting process of the chair of the appointments commission, and instead, asks an insulting question of Morgan, that Morgan cannot answer.

Why not? Because a subject cannot answer a subjective question. You require objective proof, not subjective self-assertions. Yes or No are self-definitions.

What if I asked you: Are you dumb? That puts you in the position of having to defend yourself from such a definition. That's what Taber did to Morgan. She put him in the position where he had to defend himself against the accusation of 'bigot'.

Who accused him? The committee? Did she ask the members of that committee the basis of their assertion? No. Instead, she asked Morgan to defend himself against THEIR false accusation.

Back to my asking you if you are dumb. You'd have to prove to me, that you don't fit into that definition. Why would I do that to you? You cannot provide me with that proof, for your assertions are not objective. That's a personal attack. And that's what Taber did. She ignored the committee, ignored Morgan's original speech - and attacked Morgan, insisting that he rebut and defend himself against a false assertion.

Hey Lorriane, copyright your statement!

The diffculty with Steve D's argument is that it is a claim made without any evidence. To be cynical about politicians is justified. To then jump to the conclusion that everything PM Harper does is calculated to further his objective of holding on to power is not supported by any evidence. Like any politician it would be naive to believe that Harper does not take into account the consequences of staying in power and achieving a majority when he makes a decision (just like most employees and business people take into account how decisions will affect their careers and businesses). However, to say that such considerations always take precedence over his beliefs and principles where there is a conflict is simply not supported by any evidence that I have seen.

Any credibility that Steve D. may have, is lost in my view when he makes the statement:
"How we go from here depends on the polls and what Bush wants."
Whenever I see a bald comparison of Harper to Bush I immediately conclude that the poster or reporter is biased and stop reading or listening to the report. If you have a valid point you should be able to make it without throwing in such a comparison.

ET
My politics are not cynical they are reality based.
I will use Lorraine's response to my note that Harper is changing regarding allowing media to witness military funerals. Lorriane said it wasn't a change in policy he always wanted what the families wanted. But that was not what he did. He denied media access. His actions spoke his policy. Lorraine, on the other hand, ignored his actions and spoke to her understanding of what she thought he meant. To her Harper was making a suggestion of policy. The truth is media was banned without asking any parent at any time what they preferred. Call me cynical but my politics is reality based while Lorraine's is ideology based which makes her blind to the reality. I'd say you are in Lorraine's corner too ET.

Come on, ET. Let me follow your analogy to its conclusion.

I've been called "dumb" all week by a bunch of MPs on a Committee. "Dumb" this, "dumb" that. I don't agree, obviously, what with my luminous qualifications. So I'm invited on to your show, and the first question you ask me, as a good journalist, is, "Well, Dr. Dawg, are you dumb?"

"Well, hell no, ET, not by any standard definition. I have two advanced degrees, decades of experience that fits me for the job, and a raft of publications in refereed journals that are on point. Kinda makes the word 'dumb' scream for re-definition, doesn't it?"

[And it would never enter my head that ET had been concealing a little syllogism the whole time, viz., "Socialists are dumb. Dawg is a socialist. Therefore Dawg is dumb." It was a question that I was pleased to respond to, in the negative, with reference to common-or-garden understandings of the word.]

Perhaps during this time of the Great Ottawa Media War, it is time to bring up which media folks donate to which political party.

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/001368.html

Right, Paul from Vancouver. Of course Harper has to be aware of the results of his decisions, both as policies (governance) and as polls (power). I like your comparison with corporate decision-making. If you aren't aware of the results of decision-making, your business is in trouble.

As you point out, steve d's perspective is ideology based; Harper, according to him, does nothing except with the goal of power. That's what I call an ideology of cynicism.

dawg, no, your self-refutation of what others have called you (dumb) isn't enough, because it is YOU who is doing the refutation. You can indeed try to bolster your self-definition with attributes such as degrees and refereed publications but that then begs the question of why you were called dumb.

It's that question that needs to be addressed. Not whether or not you are dumb, but why they were calling you dumb.

Same with Morgan. That's what Taber missed. Why did the committee label Morgan as a bigot? Taber should instead have asked the committee why they came to this conclusion. The justification for or against Morgan being defined as a bigot ought to come from the committee that made that claim in the first place.

Let me draw a sharp line of distinction between Conservatives of the current persuasion (howsoever distinguished from Conservatives of the former persuasion) and cynics, sceptics, non-believers or whatever, such as Steve D, Dr. Dawg and yours truly, by referring to Oscar Wilde's dictum on remarriage after divorce:

"The triumph of hope over experience."

I assure you that if your hopes materialize, you will find us in the loudest cheering section. Now let's get on to something less barren than logic. How about conspiracy theories?

The article does not give the URL of the blog.

Here: http://www.manalaa.net/

"Reynolds told The Associated Press. "When you suppress dissent, even minor voices become incredibly powerful."

SDA said: "You don't speak for me."...

"Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time." by Winston Churchill.

Even from prison, Egyptian democracy activist works the blogosphere
By LAUREN FRAYER

Excerpt:

"We covered the walls of our cell with graffiti of our names and slogans and Web site addresses," Abdel-Fattah wrote one time, referring to himself and fellow imprisoned activists. "We chanted and sang and the mood was great."

But another posting was very different. "I'm sitting here terrified they'll move me to a worse cell or cut off my visits. What should I tell you - that the day will come for them (the regime)? I'm afraid our grandchildren won't see that day, much less us."

The duo call their blog Manalaa, a combination of their first names. Young, secular and anti-authoritarian, they link the blogosphere with a democracy movement demanding reform from President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power longer than they have been alive.

Their blog, launched two years ago and written in a mixture of English and Arabic, is an Internet rallying point for activists in a country where state-run media predominate and give little voice to reformers.

It posts announcements of planned demonstrations, political commentary, even photos - with names - of plainclothes security agents notorious for beating protesters. In March, the couple used their blog to organize a sit-in, where more than 100 protesters slept in a downtown Cairo square.

Equally vital is the technical support - including Web hosting - the blog gives fellow bloggers in the growing political movement on the Internet. Manalaa collects posts from more than 1,000 Egyptian blogs, allowing users to scan the entire Egyptian blogosphere on a single page.

The number of political blogs feeding Manalaa has doubled each month for the past year, Hassan said.

"It's a revolution on the Web in Egypt - they're civilian journalists with no censorship," said Salma Abdel-Fattah, 20, a childhood friend of Alaa's who is not related to him.

"Instead of opening sites like Al-Jazeera or the BBC, we open Manalaa's blog to see what's going on," said Abdel-Fattah, whose boyfriend, Ahmed El-Droubi, was arrested with Alaa.

Glenn Reynolds, University of Tennessee law professor and author of the popular American blog Instapundit, has written frequently about Abdel-Fattah.

"He's certainly the most famous blogger in Egypt and arguably the best known reformer there now," Reynolds told The Associated Press. "When you suppress dissent, even minor voices become incredibly powerful."

The blog is also part of a love story. ...
cnews

ET
Harper knows that ideology without power is as useful as a dream. A dream may become useful to a politician if he attains power. Power may enable a politician to realize his dreams or not. Certainly he would have no hope without power. A politician, dreams and hopes for power. Without power, dreams and hopes remain potential energy waiting for power to release the kinetic energy of politics. Power is everything to a politician, especially one who has been waiting so many years. Now that he has tasted its allure he wants to keep it more than anything. You will see.

I think Steve D.'s onto something: political parties try to get elected. Hmmm....

EBD
Exactly. This stuff about principles and governance is just hooey. Its about getting elected and staying elected by whatever means.

What is this? Who was attacked? By whom? Where? When? Why?

The 5 Ws asked by MM. Oh, the chutzpah of the Dr. Raoul. MM had the "S" kicked out in "afstan', remember. ...

Questions CBS News Must Answer Now About Today's Attack (Public's Right To Know)
29 MAY 06 | Doctor Raoul

Posted on 05/29/2006 3:14:31 PM PDT by Doctor Raoul

What protective equipment was provided (armor, helmets, etc)?

Who are the maunfacturers and what are the model numbers?

Was that equipment state of the art?

Was the CBS team provided with weapons, personal security or medical aid by CBS? If so why not?

Were the CBS News team taught first aid?

Why were two of the team members British nationals? ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1640279/posts

Betcha it's this:

2 CBS News staff, US soldier killed in Iraq blast
SI.com - 5 hours ago
Troops respond Monday to a blast that killed four people, including two members of a US news crew. BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Four people, including a US soldier and two members of a CBS News crew, were killed .. google news

Wonder what the world reaction would be if all (or some) Christians decided to react to the Da Vinci Code the way the muslims did to the cartoons. Speaking of breaking codes, where can one get the new book- Nostradamus Code, about WW111, and the years 2006-12. One review says the beginning is already started. Its available for downloading, but I want the book.