I wonder what the outcry might be if it were revealed that prominent Republican financiers were working behind the scenes to promote activist campaigns directly linked to Conservative Party of Canada political interests?

Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:19:04 -800
From: Ricken Patel – Avaaz.org [avaaz@avaaz.org]
Please note: you’re receiving this email because you signed a petition with MoveOn.org using the email address XXXXXXXX. MoveOn has merged it’s global effort with groups around the world in a new campaign called “Avaaz.org”. […]
Dear friends,
Wow – on Tuesday we aimed to get 25,000 Canadians to join the emergency call to Prime MInister Harper to stop blocking the crucial UN climate change talks in Bali – and we hit that target in just 18 hours! […] the petition ads are running in papers tomorrow, including the OTtawa Citzen and the Calgary Sun. At the Bali summit, it is touch and go – with almost the entire world vs. Canada and the US over whether to accept targets on harmful carbon emissions. The Draft agreement changes every hour with carbon targets dropping in and out. We now have just over 24 hours left for an all-out push to get Harper to do the right thing….

View original text
Background:

Case dismissed.

I suggested to friends in the Sask Liberals that their leader should team up with David Orchard. That way, they could travel the province together as “Wacky and Karwacki.”

Revisiting Hillary’s “any resemblance to Saddam Hussein* is purely coincidental” moment;

“I know you’re going to inspect me. You can look inside my mouth if you want.”

Perhaps. But bring soap.

“Remember that movie Independence Day, where invaders were coming from outer space and the whole world was united against the invasion? Why can’t we be united on behalf of our planet? And that’s what I want to do, to get more and more people to understand that and to be involved to protect our environment.”

“I’ve been to cattle barns before and sales before, in Arkansas, but I’ve never felt like I was the one that was being bid on,” Clinton told a crowd in western Iowa. “I know you’re going to inspect me.
You can look inside my mouth if you want. I hope by the end of my time with you I can make the case for my candidacy and to ask you to consider caucusing for me.”

“I will be a good president for dogs, I promise!”; she said, as the puppy jumped all over her slacks. “I love gingerbread houses!” she told a teacher who said she had been making them with her students that day.

None of the preceding is satire.
More at Newsbusters on…

“… what a few minutes of serious Gregory grilling did to Clinton this morning. It was by far the most intense — dare-I-say aggressive — examination of Clinton I’ve seen this campaign season.
Throughout, Hillary clung as if to a life preserver to the endorsement she received from the Des Moines Register, whose editor is that same mirthless Carolyn Washburn who moderated the past week’s debates. Strict School Marms of the World, Unite!

CPC Director of Political Operations Doug Finley has written an official letter of complaint to the CBC Ombudsman.

On the TV program Mike Duffy Live, Mike Duffy stated the following.
“Liberal researcher Jay Ephard approach him and say, no, Jean, it’s not true. The CBC didn’t write those questions that were asked by the Liberals. We wrote them. Yes, the CBC phoned us up and suggested questions we should ask but we actually typed them out ourselves.”

Previous.
Update – CBC has announced search for sacrificial lamb.

I note that a few of you are discussing the Mulroney testimony in the reader tips thread. I’m too busy today to follow it, but you can use this thread for links or on topic discussion if you wish.
From the comments;

“Lapierre stated, while on with CTV’s Mike Duffy, that the Liberal MPs on the Ethics Committee were given today’s questions to ask by the CBC.”

If true, this merits an investigation, followed by a housecleaning.
Stephen Taylor now has an official CPC release on the allegation.
Update:

And nobody cared?

Buoyed by soaring oil prices, the Newfoundland government projected a surplus Monday of $881.8 million – more than triple its most recent forecast – and in doing so accepted a deal from Ottawa that Premier Danny Williams previously denounced as unacceptable.
[…]
[Finance Minister Tom Marshall ] acknowledged the province will receive an additional $66 million from the federal government by opting into a new equalization formula introduced March 19 – a deal Williams said he wasn’t prepared to accept because it offered less than what Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised.
After Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald accepted the same deal two months ago, Williams accused Harper of “preying on the weak” and MacDonald of saying “yes to less.”
“It’s not a plan that we want,” Marshall said, noting the province will accept the deal for this year but may opt out in the future. “If we can use it to the advantage of the people of this province, well obviously we’re going to do that.”
Last month, Williams met with the prime minister in St. John’s and emerged to say he would be willing to end his equalization feud with Harper, but it would take about $10 billion over 15 years in compensation.

At time of posting, this is the only news report on the new Newfoundland equalization deal that I could find on Google news. It’s 7 hours old.

While…

“69% say electing this Congress was a mistake.”

He knows very good lawyers. I hope that he sues.
Update – It’s been a good week for the NDP.

Goes *POP*.
I believe Dan Cook owes me a beer.
Mississauga Matt, in the comments;

About 2 weeks ago there was a link at this site to KHS’s affidavit in which he clearly stated that the money was paid in the hopes of advancing his military vehicle and pasta machine interests.
And the MSM is only coming up to speed now?

That’s the usual time delay. And now, there’s this – “Apparently Lalonde lobbied Chretien on behalf of Schreiber, but “forgot” to register, which was required even then. “

The Captain believes the Republicans will win the presidency in ’08;

He may be onto something. But wait! Get a load of this;

“I want a long term relationship,” she said. “I don’t want to just have a^[1] one night stand^[2] with all of you.”

That’ll wow ’em in Iowa.
Footnotes:
[1] It depends on what the definition of ‘a’ is.
[2] Sorry about the visual.
Update – “When Did Scott Ott Become Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Manager?”

Did you walk to work this morning, Canada? A politician without a mandate needs the carbon credits;

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says he will travel to Bali, Indonesia, next month for the United Nations climate change summit to ensure that the Harper government doesn’t push the world in the wrong direction in the fight against global warming.
“I will do everything possible to make sure this conference works well,” Dion said. “I don’t have a mandate to negotiate, but I know a lot of people [from other foreign delegations] and I take the cause of climate change to heart.”

For what is a man profited, if he gain the Liberal leadership, and lose the world?

“We are speaking about the worst ecological threat that humanity is facing, and I will do my best.”

Did you work an extra few minutes today, Canada? A politiican without a mandate needs your tax dollars.

He did not say, however, how he would pay for his trip if the government refuses.

Because planet saving ends at the wallet’s edge.
Uncommon Sense;

These opposition media whores are making this country a complete laughingstock internationally. You do not see Condolezza Rice berated in Israel by Hillary Clinton who followed here there to state the Democratic platform. You don’t see Gary Kasperov waiting in the hallways of the UN building in the hopes that he can grasp the coat-tails of some NBC news crew so he can deride his governments position on the state of Georgia. If Dion, or any other member of the opposition, Liberal, NDP, Greens or Bloc want to spend their own personal money and travel as John Q Public to whatever, meeting wherever, then fine, there is no way to stop them but it should be crystal clear that these people do not speak for Canada and do not speak for Canadians.

Previous – Bali: saving the world through burning jet fuel.

He’s the Garth that keeps on giving;

My seatmate, feisty Robert Thibault from Yarmouth, stopped drawing me a diagram of how the Mulroney-Schreiber affair massively implicates the Harper government, long enough in QP to level a blast at Nicholson. Fed with some notes on extradition which Michael Ignatieff threw across my desk at him, Robert demanded to know if the minister would exercise his power and keep Schreiber in Canada long enough to testify, first before Parliament, then before an inquiry.He delivered the question like a rolling volley of thunderous cannon fodder*. Around him MPs jumped to their feet, applauding. “Thi-bault, Thi-bault,” they chanted.
That’s when, rising, obviously draining of passion, Rob said he would not and could not. He slumped down.
Minutes later Paul Szabo stood up behind me, the chairman of the House of Commons ethics committee. He read a brief motion the committee had passed asking the Speaker to issue a rare warrant to command Schreiber to appear.

And now, for the rest of the story…

Thibault is on the House of Commons ethics committee.

From the comments – “The mere fact that Schreiber sent Harper a letter has the news people going wild… But Thibault has 2 meetings with the guy, and one has to read it on a Blog.”. Indeed.
Update: This information turns up buried at the bottom of a Bruce Cheadle report on Nov.14th. Now that the dog and pony show has been shown up for fools by Schreiber’s refusal to testify, perhaps they can make some use of the time left open to put Thibault in the chair.
Update 2: A reader writes “I believe that Garth changed the comments he made re Thibault on his blog. I read it in the beginning, and then I went back several hours later and the reference was changed to what you have reported. So I went into the comments because many times people quote him, and thankfully I found where someone quoted what was originally said by Garth.”
The passage that appears to have existed and then pulled ;

I am with Robert Thibault in caucus right now. Thibault says: “There were two people who knew about the cash – KHS and BM. I had the opportunity to talk to KS and then disclose what I found out during QP – that the first hundred thousand was paid to BM while he was still an MP. Harper met with BM numerous times, and has never disclosed anything – only when he was shamed by the KS affidavit did
he temporarily close off relations with his former close advisor.” – Garth

Screenshot

It seemed like an innocuous remark. During question period on Wednesday, Environment Minister John Baird gave a little shout-out to an aboriginal delegation in the spectators’ gallery, who had been on hand earlier in the day at the announcement of a big conservation project in Canada’s North.
But that’s a big no-no. Only the Commons Speaker can recognize visitors in the gallery, and MPs who have done the same in the past have been banned from speaking in question period for 30 days. Baird got off with a warning, though.
Even more extraordinary, however, was how that remark provoked Stéphane Dion. The Liberal leader started wildly waving to the aboriginal delegation, pointing to his own chest with both hands and arguing that Baird was trying to take credit for something he himself had done when he was environment minister. “It was me,” he shouted upward to the aboriginal leaders, who looked a bit perplexed by all the gesturing. Then Dion started barking at Baird, saying all the work on the conservation project had been done before Conservatives came to office and “you only had to sign your name.” Observers on both sides of the House averted their eyes at the outburst.

It’s not often that one witnesses a lapdog turn on a Liberal. That was the Toronto Star.
h/t reader Sammy

NY Sun;

President Sarkozy of France is on the verge of a breakthrough in his ambitious plan to wean his country off the restrictive working practices he believes stand in the way of national prosperity.
Yesterday, the strike of rail and subway workers that has crippled France for nine days was clearly crumbling, as workers began returning to work in large numbers and union branches conceded that support for the dispute is collapsing.
“We think a dynamic of return to work has begun,” Julie Vion, a spokeswoman for France’s state-owned railroad network, SNCF, said.
Union leaders began to concede defeat yesterday. “We have to face reality. Since yesterday’s negotiations, things have changed. The strike is no longer the solution. The strike strategy is no longer winning,” a leader of the Sud union representing Paris underground railway workers, Philippe Touzet, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

More at Captains Quarters and Powerline – “the right man at the right moment.”

It’s hard to think of something that could top the trashed offices in the Saskatchewan Legislature left behind by a departing NDP administration – unless it was the stuffed wolf/coyote that incoming Premier Brad Wall found waiting to greet him.
Let that sink in for a moment, while I try to find photos.
(SDA Flashback: As I once said – the apple doesn’t fall far from … the apple.)

You think you know poverty? Let me tell you about poverty;

“We were the last in our neighbourhood to get a TV, the last to get a
car. My parents had headaches about how to pay for the house.

There only two choices for a young threadbare Stéphane – the coal mines or four years in Paris.

In Liberal hope bubble news…

Fallout from the Brian Mulroney, Karlheinz Schreiber affair does not appear to have hurt Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, a new poll suggests.

And this as a Decima poll.