"We would have liked to ask Mr. Harper a follow up question. Uh. But as you know, uhh, many of us refuse to put our name, uh, names on a list and so therefore,"

1. We're idiots

2. We're not doing our job

Ha! I saw an item on tonight's news about this very thing - although it was framed as a U.S. sale - and my thought was "why the heck are they selling military hardware to those jerks?"

Bruce says "It has been suggested in other places that the sale to Saudi Arabia was part of the American purchase price for recent anti-Hezbollah statements by the Saudi government."

Given that the Saudis are starting to make threatening pronouncements against Israel, a guess a little give-and-take only goes so far.

Sorry, late at night, commenting on the wrong item.

Um, this Grope and Fail person, like, um, him don't talk so good, like, er, for a paid communicator.

Or is his real job something else?

He can't make up his mind what is in the public interest? Yet his chosen career is to supply information to the public? Yes, this interview makes it very plain who they really serve. Musn't break ranks!

And that Mr.Dubrota is precisely the reason why I won't place MY name on the list of people who subscribe to The Grope and Flail.

The PPG is loaded with egomaniacs empowered by their own sense of self importance. Everyone of them should do a tour of the Lebaneese front and see if they would like to instruct Hezbolah in the fine art of press scrums.

That poor reporter, he cannot speak! Should I
say "poor man" or "poor us in this case?

If they don't come better than him we are in real
trouble and I totally understand the Prime Minister not wanting to waste time with this
type of person. Um, Um, Um. must get irritating
after hearing it many times in one question or
answer.

I think what bothers them most is it seems no-one
seems to care one way or the other about them.
They really don't, people do not notice they
are gone for the most part because as with
five years old kids do, they need a little
growing up.

Get a Tony Snow, the Prime Minister should
be free of this daily torture, he is a busy
man and needs to speak only when it it important
to him or us.

No guts no Glory.

Syncro

As fun as it is watching Globe and Mail summer intern Alex "n00b" Dobrota get pwned by crafty vet Charles Adler, watching him get pwned by nonpolitical young student geek blogger "MasterMaq" is perhaps even funnier:

"If there is one thing that was drilled into my head in the last 8 years of my education, first in high school and then University, it is to always cite your sources...Like so much of what I have learned at University however, that's simply not the way it works in the real world. Case in point, a recent article on podcasting titled "Podcasting at a business near you". It was written by Alex Dobrota, and published in the Globe and Mail on July 6th:
...
Maybe the problem is that a journalist can simply put "experts say" and get away with it. In any case, I do believe I should be cited as a source for that entire paragraph. You see, Mr. Dobrota called me at around 1:30 PM on June 22nd to ask me some questions about podcasting (I remember this exactly because it was just moments after I got back to the office after the Oilers Tribute Event). He made it seem like I was being interviewed, which isn't all that unsual given the publicity Paramagnus has received in the last few months. Evidently I was wrong. He started out asking what podcasting was, and the follow-up questions he asked made it seem as though he really didn't have any idea what was so special about it, or why it was different than streaming audio.
...
I actually emailed Mr. Dobrota on July 1st, to ask if he had written the article. I never did get a reply from him, which makes this all the more aggravating.

Maybe there's lots of reasons why he and other journalists can simply put "experts say". You know, word count, page layout, that sort of thing. I just can't help but think though, that with all the fuss about the blogosphere being a place full of unsubstantiated rumors, we're missing that our so-called "mainstream media" don't follow the rules either."

blog.mastermaq.ca/archive/2006/07/11/5802.aspx#comments

I can see this reporter attended the Paul Martin
"How to Speak in Public" Seminar.

As for the content of what he said - he basically admitted that it is the reporters refusing to ask questions rather than the PM refusing to answer them.

Now that's really doing your job - what the h*ll do they get paid for!!!!

The poor msm as it gets more and more irrelevant it gets more and more like ann mclellan, shriller and shriller. I hope over time the blogs can cohesively wipe these sickening lefties off their wobbly soap boxes.

whatever happened to the shrill Anne McLellan? she was possibly more annoying than Sheila Copps, especially the way she condescended to just about everyone.

well, i am off to France with NoLongerProudtobecanadian. We met on this forum and it turns out he is really hot and actually a conservative.

Sic Transit Gloria

Typical righty...minimize ("the government wants to do things a little differently") and drop your principles, so you agree with the leader.

Or better...suggest the other guy drop his ("It can be as principled as you want it to be. But can't you go back to that after this conflict is over?.")

So when does the PPG start making Harper pay the price for all of this ? Maybe they could spin it that Harper is just travelling around to key
ridings, promoting the local MP, doing
partisan politics disguised as announcing government policy. And doing it all on the taxpayer-funded Challenger Jet.

Maybe the PPG will hope that their audience has forgotten that Paul Martin used to do that kind of stuff all the time. But he was very crude and obvious about it. The same Paul Martin who used to run his press conferences with the PPG just like Harper wants to run his now. The PPG
might try to re-write history and claim that they
were kicking and screaming wiht PMPM back then too.

Too bad for the PPG that the Blogoshphere has an excellent memory for all these things,
and is only too eager to gang up on them now and point out all of their hypocricy, partisanship and mediocrity.

I sit in wonderment at what the stilted Cnukistani media think they will accomplish by carring on this petulent snit to proportions where they ( the stilted media) have become totally ineffective ( from their usual reletaively ineffective).

With subscriptions to broadsheet papers and showbiz styles TV news market share dropping faster than a new brides pajams, is it wise to cut your nose off to spite your face as the Ottawa MSM has done?

Although I have criticized Harper before for his exclusive office policies where access by party members and the general public are concerned, he surely affords the media far more openness than he does even lower ranking officials of his own party...the press snit against the PM is groundless and if having a structured media scrum with a qualified journaists list is not to their liking then they are unprofessional and their bosses should fire them rather than praise them for needlessly severing vital info flow from the PMO to their media publications.

They act like jilted debutantes who were dumped at the prom when, in fact, they shied out and refuse to go to the prom because there is a dress code.

Boo-hoo-hoo, Alex Dobrota. So sad, so bad that you just couldn't ask Prime Minister Stephen Harper the follow-up question you were dying to ask. Cry me a river.

I'll bet that if the interveiw had been on TV we would have seen Mr. Dobrota's eyes flickering, looking to his left, and hands fluttering. What a pile of insincere, self-inflating, drivelling CRAP.

'Simply confirms the wisdom of my decision a year ago to stop reading the Probe and Fail. Never-probe, obviously, and fail every minute of every day.

WLM, they act like jilted debutantes, because they are jilted debutantes.

As a reward for their arrogance, they get no money from me, and I have unplugged the cable and turned off the TV.

Putting a finer point on it, they are acting like irrelevant jilted debutantes.

Shaken said re the PPG: "Putting a finer point on it, they are acting like irrelevant jilted debutantes."

...and cry-baby, spoiled, arrogant, entitled, no-couth, couturier-clothed, well-coiffed, loser, jilted debutantes...

Send the dance band home.

DAve m - what principles are involved?

For the PPG to assert that THEY alone have the right to select who gets to ask questions is not a matter of principle, just as it is not a matter of principle for Mr. Harper to select who gets to ask questions. It's simply a matter of organization. In this case, the PM's office wants to organize the press interview; whereas, the PPG insists that IT wants to organize the interview.

Principles involve the duty and necessity of the press to gather, research, validate and present reliable information. The PPG is rejecting its commitment to journalistic principles - and is instead, focusing strictly on a Power Play. They have made the organization of the press interview into an act of Power. They have entirely dropped their duty and responsibility to gather, research, validate and present reliable information in this personal power agenda.

What should they have done? Stuck to their principles - gone along with the PM's organization of press interviews..and gathered the news.

They claim that the PM's method of organization prevents them from gathering the news, because, they claim he will select only CPC favorable journalists. Not proven; and his many one on one interviews with such die-hard Liberals as Duffy, Mansbridge and others, denies their claim.

So- it's the PPG who have dropped their principles.
The PM's principles are to govern justly, accountably and for the benefit of Canadians. He seems to be doing an excellent job of that.

Here's what the PPG is just dying to do, but can't quite manouver to pull off under Harper's press conference format ... Get about three reporters in a row to ask variations of the same question (eg "why aren't you attending the Out Games ?"). Hope that Harper displays some kind of frustration, exasperation or whatever in one of his replies. Edit the "coverage" of the press conference to highlight that one moment. Get Layton, Graham, k.d. lang, to reply in the appropriate shocked, disgusted, tones. Put the clips all together, play it over and over and over in all the newscasts. Try to keep the "story" going in the newspapers. Then pat themselves on the back for being the real opposition to this government, revealing Harper's hidden agenda, being hard-hitting reporters. Whatever they think will work to help defeat Harper.

Calgary Junkie, that sounds about right. What a crew of cry baby, adult toddlers! I'm going to buy some pacifiers and send them on to the PPG, as they obviously have lots of time available to indulge themselves in self-serving antics which are no use to anyone.

Mixing my metaphors, they're dinosuars too! I receive daily updates from the PMO via the Internet. I feel more connected to this government and our PM than I ever did to the LPC losers, whose handwaving, loudmouth theatrics sicken[ed] me. The relative public peace and quiet of this government, which is because it's working on the important things behind the scene and only reports when there's something worth saying, is a huge relief. It's the way adults are supposed to behave. And it's happening. For a change. Here. In Canada. :-)

The PM and CPC: 10. The PPG: -10.

And now, with the greatest pleasure--I've been meaning to do it for ages--I'm about to dial the G & M to cancel my Saturday subscription. I'll be sure to mention why. :-)

Hurray: I've just cancelled my G & M subscription after more than 30 years! I spoke to a polite G & M "Customer Care Representative." He asked, "Is that a temporary or permanent cancellation?" PERMANENT.

I quoted the words on the Globe's masthead, "The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures. - JUNIUS"

I explained that I now find just too many commentators at the G & M biased and arbitrary, e.g., I mentioned Mr. Dobrota's latest antics at the PPG. The Customer Care Rep. said he'd pass on my remarks.

I'll probably write Mr. Greenspon myself. (That ninny, Jane Taber will receive suitable opprobrium in my remarks. What a spoiled brat. And WHAT an idiot! In her stunted opinion: Not Hot? The Tories and the media. HOT? Belinda Stronach's "Pink Book" to "address women's [sic: not mine!] political issues." Give me a break.)

I WILL miss the obits but can probably check them out on-line.

Good move, lookout!

Bah, who cares about the PPG-CPC spat. It'll solve itself when the Liberals get back in power next spring.

By aligning the Conservative Party of Canada with the radical theocracy in Israel, Harper has permanently blown any hope for a CPC majority in the forseeable future and will probably lose the next election against Michael Ignatieff. Enjoy the next 8-10 months of Harper and the CPC, because it's the last you'll see of them in power for a good long while. The Canadian people will never support a party that jeopardizes their personal and national security to this unprecedented degree, and that is precisely what Harper (or whoever is giving him really bad advice/marching orders) is doing.

6 months of political capital and years of party building and the CPC flushed it all down the toilet - for no clear and discernible benefit or moral principle. What a waste.

True dat, Bob. Harper done pished it all away to please GWB. Being a sycophant to the first Bush is what ended Mulroney's run and it will almost certainly end Harper's brief stint in office.

Bob,

Right on.

I'm completely for the Libs adding anti-Israel to their next election platform for personal and national security reasons. I feel safer already.

Ural,

there you go again. Bob never said the libs would be anti-israel. get yer head out. he said aligning himself with a nation that is pummelling the $H£$ out of another nation is going to prove foolish for harper, and then you trippin on him like he done said something he didn't.

you huddling in your rec room waiting for the shiites to come git yo?

Bob - You've been watching too much CBC. "[R]adical theocracy in Israel"? Are you nuts or just ignorant--or worse? Theocracy: "a form of government by God or a god directly or by a priestly order etc. claiming divine commission". Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Israel's a secular democracy. I think you're actually talking about Iran, Bob. (It's a good idea to get your facts straight.)

You say that the CPC "jeopardizes [our] personal and national security to this unprecedented degree" by aligning Canada with the fight of our lives against terrorism--at its source. Wrong, Bob. It's if the Iraelis, as proxy for the rest of the democratic, freedom loving world, smash Hezbollah that our personal and national security will be protected and advanced.

The MSM generally support a lot of your muddled thinking: Spreading lies on behalf of the enemy in a time of war is very dangerous--even treasonous. And, BTW, Ignatieff supports the war on terror, which is a prime reason he may not win the Liberal leadership race. Think about that.

By the way, Bob, would your full name happen to be "Baghdad Bob"? Just wondering, ya know...so many similarities.

"........radical theocracy in Israel......"

That's it. We truly live in bizzaro world when someone can apparently say this, with a straight face no less.

The PPG think they are right.

They can play the game anyways or they can take their ball and go home.

They have lost sight of the fact that is a lot more fun to win.

They do not like the rules so they have decided to take their ball and go home, which is their perogative.

But, now lots of other people also have balls with which to play (i.e. PMSH speeches are a popular download on ipods) and so the game goes on and hardly anyone is even noticing the PPG has left the game. hahaha

What a whoot. Over half (56%) of Canadians either support Harper's statements on Israel or think he didn't go far enough in their defense. Now we get all these formerly entitled LPC supporters saying what a disaster it's been, and how it's going to cost him the next election. It's wishful thinking, innumeracy and a history of personally supporting the party who comprehensively corrupted our nation's institutions through money-laundering all rolled into one. Wow.

Nice post, lookout.

No Bob, Harper hasn't aligned Canada with the 'radical theocracy' in Israel. He has aligned Canada with those global nations, such as the US, UK, Australia, etc, who are fighting Islamic fascism.

Israel is, at the moment, a proxy for the West, fighting Islamic fascism. Just as Hezbollah and Hamas are proxies for the leadership of Islamic fascism - which is Iran.

Silamic fascism has split into two realms. It began with Al Qaeda terrorism, which was focused, interestingly enough, on Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden wanted the US to bomb SA, end its 'royal family' so that he could take over and set up his Pure Islam. Instead, the US freed Afghanistan from Bin Laden's Taliban and freed Iraq from Hussein...hoping to open up the whole ME to democracy.

This move marginalized Al Qaeda, which has become instead, splinter networks filled with schizoid youth - in the West, rather than the ME. That is, the US war against Afghanistan and Iraq moved Al Qaeda out of the ME and reduced it to, still serious, but more haphazard, networks of criminals..

However, the real problem in the ME, its refusal to move out of tribalism and into a civic democracy, remained. Iran, in its agenda to prevent democracy in the ME, moved in to supply and maintain the insurgency in Iraq - to prevent the Iraqi people from their democracy.

AND the most recent phase is that Iran has also quickly moved in, with an agenda of renewing the Persian (not Arab) Empire in the ME. That's why it is arming Hezbollah and Hamas.

It wants a war in the ME; it's been trying to get the US to attack for some time - and the US has been refusing. Now, Iran is trying to set up the ME as a 'hot point' by having its proxies attack Israel. It wants the West to come in and fight on behalf of Israel. The agenda - is War in the ME - and Iran wants to emerge as Head of the New Persian Empire.

That's why Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq - are worried. They don't fancy being controlled by Iran. This split in the ME, with the focus being, not on refusing democracy, but on refusing to be controlled by Iran - is a vital and important shift in ME power. The onus is shifting from the West, to the ME states, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq - to prevent Iran from its agenda of power. This also means, that they might themselves, move more into democracy - ie- to empowering their majority citizens.

I'm not sure what you think should be done about Islamic fascism, but sitting back and doing nothing, permits them, as Al Qaeda terrorists to bomb office towers, trains, hotels, restaurants. And it permits Iran to move itself into becoming the controller of all the states of the ME, using Islamic fascism as its tool.

How would you deal with both Al Qaeda and Iran's emerging control of Islamic fascism?

whootwhoot,

Are you suggesting using a modified NDP slogan "Business Friendly" ... "Israel Friendly". Great idea! People like slogans. May the spirited energy be with you.

i dunno why y'all make such a big deal about the sponsorship "scandal". so they pissed away $150 million. maybe it was $300 million, whatever, it was the price to win the referendum and it worked.

Harper settled the softwood lumber dispute by asking for only $500 million of the $5 billion we had to pay the US that was deemed unjustified by the WTO, not once, not twice, not thrice but FOUR TIMES!. that $4.5 billion was ours and Harper just let GWB take it. that is 15 sponsorship scandals rolled into one. Wow.

Talk about innumeracy. Y'all don't get the big picture do you?

Ural,

i am not suggesting anything like that. Are you suggesting you wish to have congress with your dog?

URAL: Israel Friendly and Dog Friendly

whootwhoot,

"you huddling in your rec room waiting for the shiites to come git yo?"

Not at all. I'm also not fussing, throwing fits, and crying because nanny isn't here.

whoowhoot - You don't get either the factual or the big picture.

1) The sponsorship money had zilch to do with the referendum 'win'. The sponsorship funding came AFTER, AFTER the referendum. OK? Got that fact clear? The Liberals did nothing to 'fight for the federation' during the referendum phase, and were stunned that the loss was only by a few percentage points.

So - why was the money spent, since it was AFTER the referendum? It was laundered money. It was, on the surface, supposed to show a 'love-in' emotional bash of flinging money at Quebecers, if they would simply 'show the Canadian flag'. As if anyone can be bribed to hold a political viewpoint simply by seeing a flag fluttering at a hockey rink.
So- what was the money really spent on? It was taxpayer money, laundered via on the surface being spent on 'ad campaigns about Love Canada'. But, nothing was produced by these ad companies. Instead, the money went for their services during the next federal election, in Liberal ridings.

Get it? The money was laundered from the taxpayer, to the Liberal Party. That's illegal. OK?
It went to pay for these services in getting Liberal candidates elected in Quebec. Chretien was extremely worried; Chretien had only ONE agenda - ever - which was to maintain power. His power. He wasn't interested in Canada.

So- the ad companies were paid, on paper, AS IF it was for ad campaigns about Love Canada in Quebec. But their real work was in getting Liberal candidates re-elected and elected in Quebec.

That's illegal. Do you approve?

And remember, this had zilch to do with the referendum - which was held BEFORE the sponsorship.

2)The softwood lumber dispute was settled correctly. Canada was subsidizing its lumber producers, particularly in BC, by its low stumpage fees, as low as 25c for a log, which would then sell for $300 a log! Those low stumpage fees were a form of subsidy and WTO did rule against Canada.

The US had every right to demand tariffs because of our subsidizing. All they wanted, was for Canada to sell the lumber rights at market price, not by those stumpage fees.
In the maritimes, this isn't a problem, because the lumber is harvested from private lands not public and the subsidy of low stumpage doesn't apply.

You don't seem to know or be interested in FACTS.

What's with your fictional cowboy talk? How about an interest in facts?

Dude,

if the US had every right to demand the tariffs, then why did they lose every appeal on the issue? The WTO did not rule against Canada.

GWB put the tariffs in place to please voters in the states he needed to win, just like he put steel tariffs in place to try to win Pennsylvania.

You think the US doesn't subsidize its own lumber producers?

as for the facts, i am interested in them.

and yes, i approve of laundering the money to stay in power. there's no romance without finance, pal.

whoowhoot -

Your conclusions are without factual evidence. Therefore, your self-description that you are interested in facts is invalid.

Kindly provide factual evidence that the US subsidizes its lumber producers.

The US did not lose every appeal. Kindly get your facts straight.

To pay a 25c per cubic metre of wood, and then sell it at $300 a cubic metre is unfair.

Kindly provide factual evidence that Bush put the tariffs in place for his own election agenda. This is particularly interesting since those tariffs were in place before Bush.

'romance without finance' is a meaningless statement.

The FACT that you approve of a political party stealing taxpayer money and using it to pay for their election campaign - says a great deal, none of it good, about your intellect, morality and judgment.

"The offices of some Conservative MPs have been inundated, first as Prime Minister Stephen Harper termed Israel's attack on Lebanon a "measured response," then as he refused to condemn Israel -- and suggested UN culpability -- in the presumed death of a Canadian peacekeeper.

"It's definitely generated the most calls since I've been in office, since Jan. 23," Mike Wallace, the MP for Burlington in Southern Ontario, said yesterday. "Obviously those who are calling and e-mailing have been fairly passionate about the issue."

While most constituents have praised the government's efforts to get Canadians out of the war zone, their views about the government's diplomatic efforts have been divided, Mr. Wallace said.
...
In Toronto, where the Conservatives have no MPs, some of the party's organizers are shaking their heads.

"The Jewish community is very staunchly in favour of the party's position. The Muslim community is not so happy," one very active member said. "And there's more of them than there are Jewish people. So in terms of a vote-getting thing, if he is doing it for that reason, I don't get it. It makes no sense to me."
...
"He is in a very, very tough spot," Dr. Gerolymatos said of the Prime Minister. "In the polls that I've seen, half the Canadians support [his stand] and half oppose it. If he's not careful, he may end up losing a lot of votes because you have to remember there's a lot of Lebanese Canadians in Canada, there's a lot of Muslim Canadians, who are going to see his actions as being strictly one sided."

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060728.wxmideharper28/BNStory/National/home

Re Bob's comment "there's a lot of Lebanese Canadians in Canada," it's also a fact that a lot of them haven't, until two weeks ago, lived in Canada for years. Another indicator of the Librano$' corruption of Canada's sovereignty: That dual citizenship for people who were not born in Canada is allowed--and brings in thousands of votes for the LPC--is an abomination and perversion of democracy. Sadly, these scuzzy tactics are nothing new from the Libs.

ET socked it to whoot, whoot (a new kind of insect? swat, swat) who cares not a whoot that the Librano$ are crooks, thugs, liars, and cheats. Exactly the reason PMSH and the CPC were put into office in January. Hmmm. And s/he thinks that Canadians are going to bring the party of duplicity and dirty tricks back into power in the next election--and that it's OK?

Scary. Unacceptable. Just 'cause you say it's so doesn't mean it's going to happen...

Hmmm, Whootwhoot says that Harper's government ignored a WTO decision and made a financially-bad deal, leaving $500 million on the table...

On issues like this, I always ask myself "What would Paul Martin have done?

Let's see...here's what he said on November 16, 2005:

"Martin said he would not soften his stance despite a ruling in favor of the United States on Tuesday from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"Not a bit. And in fact the WTO decision is largely irrelevant to this," he said.

The problem is that both the WTO and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have pronounced on various aspects of the perennial dispute, sometimes siding with Canada and sometimes with the United States.

Washington says this means they should negotiate a settlement, but Martin says NAFTA came to a final verdict on one aspect which requires a refund of $3.5 billion of duties.

"The fact is that what we're talking about are NAFTA rules, NAFTA panels which we have won consistently so let me be unequivocal," he said.

"We are in the right. We are not going to negotiate a win. The Americans...owe Canadian companies $3.5 billion. The fact is that Canadian companies are in the right and I'm not going to back off of that."

Hmmm. "WTO...irelevant" "$3.5 billion"

Egad!!! Could Harper have actually made a BETTER deal than MArtin was seeking...one wonders...

Perhaps, bob, Harper's decisions are not derived from a focus on personal power - to buy votes from Interest-Groups; but instead are derived from principles of justice and morality. How about that?

A politician whose actions are not about personal power - similar to the dictatorships in the ME and elsewhere - but are geared to justice, truth, ethics, morality. Hmmm?

Do you approve of politicians, or any individual with power, who base their decisions solely on whether or not that action enhances their power? Wouldn't you prefer a politician, or individual with power, (doctor, lawyer, judge) to base their decisions on principles?

Whootwhoot the dispute has a lot more to do with Jimmy Carter’s personally owned sawmills than it does GWB who has bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Trade is political. It works when a buyer and seller can agree on the terms. To think that the WTO is going to solve anything is like thinking the UN will solve the ME crisis. Negotiations between countries only work when both parties want a solution. There is no enforcer. Liberals did not want softwood solved; it was part of their hysterical anti-Americanism. Unfortunately that works on a certain self-loathing segment of the Canadian population. Harper and Bush wanted a solution and got one that isn’t perfect. Then again they aren’t utopians so they can live with less than perfect.

95% of Canada/US trade works. Thank God. Canadian companies are too regional in outlook and too tiny to compete globally. Therefore we are totally dependent upon the US economy because we haven't championed an investor class, we've taxed it. If this were not the case, softwood companies would have long ago told the Americans to stuff it and sold their goods elsewhere. Only a few decades of Conservative capitalist government can turn this US dependency problem around. Ironically Liberals have created US dependency and Conservatives will help make Canadains feel self-sufficient and sovereign again.

Harper is solving problems. He’s taking moral stands on geopolitical events rather than equivocating and it’s working with more and more Canadians. We need 42% for a majority government and that is reachable.

Principled Liberals such as Ignatieff will have a tough time in a party whose membership like whootwhoot thinks it’s OK to laundry money. Therefore Liberals are likely to elect another sleazeball. Too bad. Because Conservatives need a healthy opposition and Canadians deserve it.

Who let the trolls hijack the topic?

The Librano MSM has been packaging reality for the Canadian voting lemmings for a good long while, but with the advent of the blogosphere and growing availability of bandwidth, they are losing market share fast.

PMSH knows that the MSM is losing its grip. Apparently, the useful dupes at the MSM haven't figured it out yet. They're too busy preening in front of the mirror to understand that they've been disintermediated. I say it looks plenty good on them.

Critics are saying they are has beens.

As evidenced on another thread, whootwhoot should is a hatemongering, anti-Semite troll and should be (at least) ignored or (better) banned from SDA or (best) reported to the authorities. I implore you all to cease giving this scum any attention.

Shaken is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. The MSM in Canada is fast becoming obsolete. They have been making the news for far too long. Always looking for some hack to interview, that will say-what-they-want-to-hear. Then, at the end, in a know-all fashion; This XYZ, CBC News, Canistan.

Point noted Shaken. I wandered. I should have at least drawn the connection between the MSM trying to keep the emotions high on softwood and Harper taking a principled stand with the UN.

The PPG hates it when Conservatives deal with facts and issues instead of stirring up emotions and creating fiction.

Well, I've just read my last, owned-by-me Saturday G & M: unlike the NP, where I can immediately remember 4 memorable articles--Jonas, Fulford, Krauthammer, and Frum--I can think of only two articles, Rex Murphy's and Blatch's, that really resonated. (And there's a whole lot I can't stand, including the insufferable Tane Jabber: Her gossip column's graced by a HUGE picture of the NDP, multicultural, poster couple in a canoe on the Nahanni River. How with it! How posh! How expensive!)

I did like the all caps headline at Section R, TROUBLE AT CBC, but it didn't talk about the real trouble--that almost no one's interested in ANY CBC programming--only the bad executive decision to run a really dumb AMERICAN reality show that was cancelled by ABC.

Any article worth its salt about trouble at the CBC would have to be an in-depth investigation of the avalanche of complaints received by its ombudstoady, and his abysmal record solving any of them. The ombudstoady's correspondence, which documents the bias and spin of the taxpayer fraud called the CBC, would expose why our "public" broadcaster is in such trouble. I have no sympathy whatsoever: If CBC made any attempt to fulfill its mandate by providing balanced--"nuanced"?--coverage of issues, its audience share would certainly improve.

CBC's obdurate insistence on being the mouthpiece for the lapdog l(L)iberal elites of this country, at the expen$e--literally--of the rest of us, is a national disgrace. Except for the music on Radio 2, the CBC's done nothing for me except raise my blood pressure. Good riddance to it, the sooner, the better!

The G & M's not far behind in my estimation. And the "going, going . . . gone" ratings of both of "Canada's media of note" couldn't happen to a more deserving duo. :-)

I think you guys are deluding yourselves in thinking that the MSM is becoming irrelevant or that blogging will replace it. Unless the MSM is totally banned from publishing or the airwaves, which is highly unlikely, Harper's feud with reporters will come back to haunt him. Since he doesn't want to talk to reporters, they will spin stories in whatever way suits their political agenda. Of course, they have always done this, but in some ways it's easier now...interviewing biased pundits because the PM or cabinet ministers aren't available, or implying that "he doesn't want to talk to us so he must have something to hide", etc. They will continue to shape public opinion (to a certain degree) and because of this feud, they will not go out of their way to shine a positive light on Harper or the Conservatives.

Iberia, the media do "not go out of their way to shine a positive light on Harper" no matter what. In fact, it seems the more he says--and the more they can edit his remarks and even his body language out of context--the more they're likely to spin.

I get detailed, regular emails from the PMO, with announcements and speech texts, far more straightforward information--information, period--than I ever got from the Liebrano$. The PPG has access to the info I have and probably more, made available, in print, by the CPC.

I can't recall anyone here suggesting "that the MSM is becoming irrelevant or that blogging will replace it [sic]." But we are seeing a modicum of balance and ACCOUNTABILITY being introduced to the information mix and a well deserved snub of the prima donnas of the media world who used to be the only singers in town. They aren't now and are having to share the stage and face the out of tune music.

As I said before, it couldn't happen to a more deserving crew! :-)

Iberia - It's absolutely untrue that Harper doesn't want to or won't talk with reporters.

We've had more one on one interviews with Harper than with any political leader in the past decades - interviews that actually produce serious, well-thought out answers rather than the pompous empty rhetoric of Martin/Chretien.

He takes questions at all speeches and again, gives thoughtful and open answers.

Same with his ministers. We've heard from Ambrose, MacKay and others - thoughtful, articulate answers to questions.

The hold-out group is the PPG, which is not interested in the news and is engaged in a personal power play - The president of the PPG wants to select the questioners rather than the PM's office. It's trivial, it's personal, it's juvenile. It's a situation that tells us something about the personality of the president of the PPG. He's not interested in the news; only in his own power.

As for the MSM and the columnists, the majority are Liberals; they are part of the latte CBC crowd, brainwashed in the naive 1960s isolationism of Canada as a 'peacekeeper' (what the heck is that? what does a peacekeeper do, hand out candies?); Canada as multicultural (= Canada as a hotel); Canada as tolerant (sure, anything goes as long as it's anti-American)..etc, etc.
The Jane Tabers, Kevin Newman, Gloria Galloway, and so on -all part of The Press Gang.

More and more people are turning away from the MSM, not because of the ideology, i.e, pro Liberal, but because the MSM keeps saying the same thing. In that situation, where the same conclusions are always drawn...the themes become propaganda. A population doesn't listen to propaganda as news; it doesn't even listen to propaganda.

And - blogs are important. They took down Rather and Kerry. We shouldn't underestimate blogs.

ET, well said. Looking at the blogosphere: it is highly accessible; information travels extremely quickly; it metamorphizes faster than any other medium I have experienced; each issue is examined from every different angle; synthesis of insight grows organically from a heterogeneous web of inputs. And, it's free.

Against this onslaught the petulant PPG throws its hissy-fits. And what is at stake? Their power. They're not losing their power because of PMSH. They're losing it because of the factors I list above, only they can't see it because they are blinded by their own self-importance.

The Librano lapdog MSM is rusting out, which I see as a huge positive for Canada. The PPG whining is just making it rust a little faster.

dobrota is upset because can't ask follow up questions because he won't sign a list and this is PMSH's problem !!!
your pissing in the wind dobrota and it looks good on all of you.

lberia

"I think you guys are deluding yourselves in thinking that the MSM is becoming irrelevant or that blogging will replace it."

Sometime tells me it's more delusional to think that MSM are becoming more relevant or staying the same.

At one time milk, in glass bottles, was delivered to homes via horse drawn carts.

The likes of iberia and whootwhoot have their minds made up...we shouldn't confuse them with the facts.
lookout has started a good campaign here...'Pacifiers for the PPG'...mine will be in the mail Monday...

Press Release.

From: Not-A-Friend-Of-CBC. (snip)

George (Vroomvroomvroom ...splat) Strombapapopolous is returning via Hog to his day job at Canada's National Broadcaster in TO/GTA. Vrooooomm....

Mr. Stroumboulopoulos said yesterday it was good luck that his motorcycle arrived in Los Angeles yesterday, barely a month after he ditched it in Chicago to take up the offer of the plum American hosting gig. "It's kind of a neat little bookend," he said. "I'm just basically finishing up a couple of things I've got to do. Then I'm going to get back on my bike and come home."

STAY IN LALA LAND YOU CORRUPT CBC POS .... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
via voy forums

they will not go out of their way to shine a positive light on Harper or the Conservatives.

Iberia - What's it matter how Harper treats the smarmy lefty press, like Bush, he's never going to get fair treatment no matter how he accommodates the agenda driven idiots.

Like every other thing involving the internet, since its inception, adaptation evolves and quickly hit critical mass. Blogs of thoughtful, fair and balanced political value will replace the insipid MSM as time passes. Only the stupid and incurious stay stuck. We found Kate and others like her. All of use using the gifts that the internet has given us are the MSM's worst nightmare. No one ever spoke back, ridiculed or called these idiots on their false facts and biases before with such speed and numbers.

Payback is a bitch.

I'm got a brilliant solution to the PMSH and PPG problem.

The guy who calls the press conference desides how the questions are asked. Harper has a press conference-its his call. PPG calls a press conference(probably no attendess) they get to control the questions. Simple.

Horny Toad

We should never rule anything out. No one can foresee where this is going.

Already pod casts are replacing e-mail.
Newer tech is being produced as we type.

This communication revolution is still much in its infancy.

All I know is that before this medium & the descent of the MSM we only got two sides of a question, if we where lucky. Of an opinion the Media itself decided was worthy. Now we all have access to the world data, plus the minds behind it. This is irrevocably changing human behavior patterns. We are no longer bound by conglomerates nor guilds. A lie today has the clarity of a supernova. Someone always knows the truth. In this way they can attempt to stay out of any fray. Most rational Web users are becoming inured at false data . If not adepts at deceit.

I hope to see a new renaissance after this war is won. New forms of Art , communication, science . Heck even SeTI uses the net now & for years to suppliment there power. How can we possibly know the new twists & turns coming our way?

The PPG is so far behind its becoming laughable. While swimming in the shores of self aggrandizement. The tide is leaving them stranded in an extinct era.

vf, "Pacifiers for the PPG": Great campaign motto! Mine will be in the mail too. :-) :-)

Really. Don't forget to send yours.

Pacifiers for the PPG (Parliamentary Press Gallery) Campaign: Here are the two addresses given at the (very amateur looking) PPG web site. I plan to send one pacifier for the adult toddlers of the PPG to each address.

If you wish to customize your offering, e.g., to someone like Jane Taber, check out the list of members at CPPG, Ottawa.

ROOM 350-N,CENTRE BLOCK
PIÈCE 350-N, ÉDIFICE DU CENTRE
TELEPHONE (613) 992-4511
FAX (613) 995-5795
KIA OA6

ROOM 607, 150 WELLINGTON ST.
PIÈCE 607, 150, RUE WELLINGTON
TELEPHONE (613) 992-6517
FAX (613) 996-2076
KIP 5A4

The Aussies call a pacifier a "dummy". They also have a saying "spit the dummy" which means:

To indulge in a sudden display of anger or frustration; to lose one’s temper. The phrase is usually used of an adult, and the implication is that the outburst is childish, like a baby spitting out its dummy in a tantrum and refusing to be pacified.

Well, well, well. It seems the "adult toddler", dummy, pacifier allusion is an archetype well suited to the "childish outbursts" of our very own PPG.

Thanks, ural.

A Urnalist speaks re libel law/chill. 1/2 credit at Cartoon U, aka Carleton U... isn't that the U where Warren spent his beer money?

bbq is code for all ears. ...-

A BCer in Toronto said...

Rat, obviously as a journalist I do have some understanding of libel law. However, my brief education on the topic (half a credit at Cartoon U) was just what I needed to know as a print journalist.

The Internet is a different ball of wax, and one where, while I'm not a lawyer, I think the law is not yet fully formed. Particularly around blogging, ie., is blogspot the publisher or am I, do I publish a commentor's comments or do they, or does blogspot?
...
Secondly, as a journalist I work for a publication with libel insurance and a laywer. There are resources to fall back on. As a blogger, I'm on my own, no support system to even fight back against a frivious complaint. Or even determine its viracity.

Thirdly, knowing bloggers lack such a support system and resources, we're much easier targets. Slap a lawsuit or fire a warning letter to a media company, if its crap they'll fight it. Most bloggers can't, so at the sight of a scary legal letter they'll fold.

I'm sure you know what libel chill is, and that's why I'm concerned. And that's why freedom of speech on the Internet is important. Yes, libel is bad, and libel should be dealt with. My concern is corporations and politicians using frivulous threats of libel suits to stifle criticism and fair comment because they know we're easy targets.

As for the green party case mentioned in the release I don't know the background or details of that case, but Mark I look forward to getting the inside story at the bbq.
http://bcinto.blogspot.com/2006/07/libel-chill-in-canadian-blogsphere.html

"The likes of iberia and whootwhoot have their minds made up...we shouldn't confuse them with the facts."

Posted by: vf

Nice to know that you have all the facts. Don't be so sure they won't bite you in the ass.

The PPG has become irrelevant in the daily news media. They write their columns and opinions based on TV coverage or reading speeches or press releases. Harper knows he cannot win with the PPG whether they like him or not. He is prepared to meet with them and let them ask questions but it is the PPG that refuses to meet with the Prime Minister. So much for caring about news coverage in Canada. It is all about the whining PPG and their play for power.
K.D. Lang was in the press yapping about Harper not showing tolerance by avoiding the Out Games. What happens? Fortier goes and is booed and shouted down by this so called tolerant group. Can you imagine the press coverage if Harper had gone and he was booed etc? Harper was right to stay away. It just goes to show tolerance is only expected on one side as this minority group tries to legitimize their lifestyle as mainstream.

What a great post!
Two complete idiots with nothing to say and no clue..a real meeting of 'minds ' ??

The pompous and self serving Adler dooing his level best to encourage the self righteous and incompetent Dobrota.
Truth recorded for posterity.
OMMAG

I'm looking at my two-for-one, beauty, NUK Gerber pacifiers for the PPG. They're shiny and very colourful! I think I'll mark the Tory blue one specially for Jane Taber, aka, Tane Jabber. ;-)

OMMAG You forgot loud-mouthed wind-bag when describing Chukie A.

David Warren has a good essay on TV News - July 30, 2006

TV news - "What I found most remarkable in my old editor’s suggestion, was the notion that TV reported raw news."

"Television, in my own received opinion, which exhibits my own class prejudice, is for people who don’t need to know, and don’t mind being manipulated. I would not go so far, however, as to dismiss the judgement of the general public. For if TV had manipulated people successfully, neither George W. Bush nor Stephen J. Harper would ever have been elected."

MSM from Palestine? Where is Palestine? There is no country named Palestine; ergo, there is no Palestinian media.

Interim Leader, Willy Graham, of the Lib/Socialist Party of Canada/Toronto will appreciate the lack of nuance in the black SS propaganda issued by the Arab's Der Sturmer/Volkischer Beobachter.

Rice is black: How would El-Goebbels have portrayed Sammy Davis, Jr.? Sammy was the only one-eyed, black Jew in the world. ...-

Palestinian media use racist terms to describe Condoleezza Rice

Palestinian media outlets refer to Rice as the "black woman," "raven," "colored dark skinned black lady" and "black spinster." ...-
via nealenews

Wimpy newsguy / "I really wanted to ask Primeminister Harper THE poignant question!"
"You know, "Do you love Canada?""
But Sandy Renaldo would kick my ass if I did my job"!

What an incredible situation we have in Canada, the major news agencies are imposing a war with the PMO and they can not truthfully articulate their disingenuous position as to "Why", while they monopolize the air waves and newspapers with their suicidal, shallow, blind groupblather (George Bush bad ,Harper = Bush.) What an embarrassing lot these liberano$$$/marxists sycophants truly are.
They would rather disgrace themselves, their profession, and obliterate their trusted position as the publics sentinal looking out for corruption in government.
F them and their adscam/terrorist supporting message of destruction.
They are not just wrong, "They ain't never been right"
Good riddance.