Whine, and the world laughs at you …

First, the Liberal Party killed Youth for Volpe.
Last week, ‘Liberals for Hezbollah’ mysteriously went offline.
Now, this site’s ISP has received a letter from the Liberal Party of Canada, full of imaginary legal violations (Slander? Has a HezboLiberal Broadway-style musical opened somewhere?) and veiled threats.
My ISP has been great and has given every indication that they would stick by me through this. But, I have decided to take down the website to save them further hassles.
If the Liberal Party ever wants to repair its reputation, it has to learn that it can’t censor, threaten ordemand that Canadians ‘shut up.’ There are too many of us, and it is too easy for us to communicate these days for that sort of tactic to work anymore, in a free society.
If the Liberal Party doesn’t like what it sees on blogs and on the Internet, it has to stop doing stuff so outrageous and offensive that someone would spend an entire day building a website just to mock it.
Until that happens, you are going to have to learn to live with it.
Sincerely,
HezboLiberal.com

When the New York Times used this tactic against Robert Cox a couple of years ago, the blogosphere responded by mirroring his spoof page a dozen times over.
You know, I’d hate to see that happen in this case. Lawyers letters cost money.
h/t Maz2
Update – Well, this didn’t take long… apparently, a zip file is available for anyone who wants to duplicate the site.
Screenshot
Update – Ezra Levant, gets in on the fun.

CBC;

Liberal party officials shut down a website showing how much money leadership candidates have raised Wednesday after personal information about the hopefuls was inadvertently included.
The party had posted lists of donations received by each of the 10 candidates on its website Wednesday afternoon. However, the information was quickly pulled from the internet after the discovery that it had mistakenly included the candidates’ home phone numbers and addresses.
That wasn’t the only problem with the website, according to some of the candidates. Several camps complained that tens of thousands in donations were not included in the tallies because they hadn’t yet been processed by the Liberal party.
Candidates must funnel campaign donations through the party in order to provide tax receipts.
Hours later, many candidates released their own, more up-to-date tallies of their donations. According to their figures:
* Bob Rae had donations of $478,750 by the end of July and loans of $275,000.
* Michael Ignatieff had raised $373,922 to July 31, with loans of $125,000.
* Gerard Kennedy had raised $361,503 up to Aug. 12, with loans of $200,000.
* Joe Volpe had raised $340,000 up to July 31, with no loans.
* Scott Brison had raised $230,000 up to Aug. 22, with loans of $200,000.
* Stéphane Dion had raised $155,000 up to Aug. 22, with loans of $530,000.
* Carolyn Bennett had raised $77,350 up to Aug. 22, with a loan of $35,000.
Before the campaign donor section of the website was shut down, it showed Ken Dryden had raised $49,194, Martha Hall Findlay had amassed $36,835 and Hedy Fry had brought in $15,061 by the end of July.
The campaign is the first to be run under new federal finance rules, which limit individual donations to $5,400 and prohibit contributions from corporations and trade unions.
Many of the candidates have publicly commented on the difficulty of fundraising under the new rules.

Not to mention the difficulty of fundraising when forced to admit they’re Liberals. (“Excuse me? Isn’t that what Quebec advertising agencies are for?”)
h/t Maz2 in the comments
More on the self-destructing LPOC.

A sharp-eyed reader asks “Where’s Joe’s dough?”

In early June, Joe Volpe promised to post a list of donors on his website monthly.
On June 9, Joe Volpe posted a link to this press release on the main page of his site, here.
While that press release can still be accessed by directly going to the old URL, I can’t find any place where it is still linked to by Volpe’s site. (Though I haven’t consumed a lot of caffine this morning.)
As well, it is a month later, and there isn’t a new list..

Screenshot of press release
Volpe’s Liberal leadership campaign claims to have signed 35,000 new members. All I can say about that is “YeeHaw! Go Joe Go!”
Tuesday morning update – well that didn’t take long! SDA gets results!

Strikes again…

The Globe And Mail invites their readers to “join the conversation”;

James CHIPMAN from Canada writes: Listen up folks , this is the Liberals at their finest , crapping on anyone who gets things done for Canada , pity. Dont worry liberals we wont forget the sponsorship scandal , for at least 2 more elections anyway.
Arron D from Ottawa, Canada writes: And ask the Liberals about how to keep the best interests of the country at heart. Look at Adscam, GolfScam, the HRDC Scam, the Helicopter Scam, the hercules Scam, the Military Scam, and a couple more I have definitely forgotten, the country’s interests at heart, alright. The have written the book on how to do good for Canada, like Volpe and the toddlers, Bob Rae as a serious leadership candidate, the best interests of who again? the best interests of their accountants it seems.
Brad Buss from Toronto, writes: sour grapes. What didnt he understand about Harper being all business. There is a neat thing called a relationship that is both amicable and business. Harper struck the perfect balance Achieved the paramount – flexibility to not have passports on the border, no to missile defence and improved relations.
Joe Mead from Winnipeg, Canada writes: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha What a liberal snob, telling our ELECTED PM who his friends should be.

Heh.
h/t ET

Steve Janke

It is no secret that businesses in Caledonia are suffering because of the land dispute. The provincial government, run by the Liberals under Premier Dalton McGuinty, has offered to help.
In true Liberal fashion, they are offering to help with advertising.
Not with removing the barricades. Advertising.

Advertising contracted through a Liberal-friendly ad agency.

The head of the firm is Brian Torsney. His sister is Paddy Torsney, a former Member of Parliament for Burlington for the federal Liberals. Burlington is near Hamilton. From 1985 to 1989, she was a special assistant to David Peterson, at the time the Liberal premier of Ontario.
The same David Peterson who was assigned the task of negotiating on behalf of the province in the Caledonia dispute.

Update the print ads are now out…..

(Click image for full size)

Press release;

Mr. Steve McKinnon, National Party Director of the Liberal Party of Canada issued a public apology to Ipsos Reid, Canada’s largest market research and public opinion polling company, on the CTV show “Mike Duffy Live” for comments he made about the company on the same show on Tuesday, May 23, 2006.
During that broadcast on May 23rd, Mr. McKinnon spoke about the results of a poll released by Ipsos Reid on May 23 which showed the Conservative Party to have support of 43% nationally, a level not seen since November of 1988.
Mr. McKinnon was served with a legal demand notice for retraction and apology on May 24, 2006. In compliance with part of that notice, Mr. McKinnon stated on the May 25 edition of “Mike Duffy Live”:
“Mike, last time we spoke — on Tuesday — we were discussing the latest Ipsos Reid poll. In that discussion I made statements about the methodology which were without basis in fact, and I would like to retract those statements and apologize to Ipsos Reid.”
Recently, Mr. McKinnon concluded the matter by providing Ipsos Reid with a letter of retraction and apology and paid a settlement cost.

Via Bourque

From the Tongsun Park Oil-For-Food trial, we learn this about the good friend and business partner of Maurice Strong;

In early 1996, about 10 months before Oil-for-Food finally rose from the vat as a living U.N. program, Tongsun Park allegedly asked Vincent for $10 million from Iraq to take care of his “expenses” and his “people.” Vincent relayed this to his contact and friend, the then-ambassador of Iraq to the U.N. in New York, Nizar Hamdoon.
Asking, “Why don’t we make some money?” Hamdoon suggested a different arrangement: Instead of asking Baghdad to bankroll $10 million for Park, Vincent and Hamdoon should ask for $15 million, give $5 million to Park and keep the remaining $10 million for themselves.
In short order, Hamdoon reported to Vincent that Iraq had approved the request. Vincent set off immediately for Baghdad, making arrangements to transfer the expected $15 million to offshore accounts. When he arrived in Baghdad, all seemed well. He was received with smiles and tea by Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Rashid, and invited to compose contracts spelling out the arrangements for the $5 million and $10 million payments, which Rashid signed.

It’s a small world.
From 1996 to 1998, Tongsun Park served as adviser and then the CEO of Canadian Atomic Energy Co..

“On October 16, 1996, Reid Morden wrote a letter to Maurice Strong and Tongsun Park “requesting on behalf” of Atomic Energy of Canada for “the support of Mr, Park and Mr. Strong for the sale of “Candu 9” nuclear reactors during their upcoming meeting in Korea with Korean leaders.
“Reid, who was `employed from 1994 to 1998 as President and Chief Executive Officer” of AECL, `a company owned by the Canadian government’ could not be reached for comment. The Canadian government will not investigate the more than $100 billion oil-for-food program that operated for seven years. As CFP previously reported Canada is the seventh largest donor to the United Nations,”

American reporter Claudia Rosett continues to report on the Park trial, including testimony implicating Maurice Strong;

For now, I am trying to square Maurice Strong’s 2005 denial of any contact with “any of the officials responsible” for Oil-for-Food with testimony from state’s witness Samir Vincent on Thursday, in which Vincent described a lunch meeting at a Chinese restaurant near the U.N.. This lunch took place in late 1996. At the time, Oil-for-Food was just getting underway, and according to Vincent, the Iraqis had decided not to bother paying Tongsun Park millions of dollars promised to him earlier that year. Park was “very unhappy,” according to Vincent’s testimony, and arranged a high-powered lunch, in a private room, to which he invited three others: Samir Vincent; Iraq’s then-ambassador to the U.N., Nizar Hamdoon; and one of Park’s high-powered friends at the U.N., Maurice Strong, who dropped by for about 45 minutes to exchange pleasantries, but having put in an appearance, left before the lunch was over.
Vincent testified Thursday that after Strong left the lunch, Tongsun Park turned to Iraq’s ambassador Hamdoon and “told him now you see my commitment, now you see why I need Iraq to keep their commitment to me and to continue what they promised to do.”

It does make one wonder what it will take to rouse our curiously indifferent national media to report on the Canadian connections central to this largest fraud scandal in history. One can also be forgiven for wondering how differently that same media would cover the scandal if the testimony included names like Brian Mulroney or Gwyn Morgan.

And presto!

One would think that after campaigning against George W. Bush in the last election – and losing – the Liberal Party of Canada would have taken that lesson home and learned from it.
Apparently not.

From the Desk of the National Director [Steven MacKinnon]
Dear Liberal Friend,
Please take a moment to read below, and consider what you are willing to do for Canadian democracy.
In the last 100 days, The Stephen Harper Government has put forward a series of policies that are seriously impeding Canada’s ability to be a sovereign nation. Under the smoke and mirrors of tax cuts and half-hearted subsidies, Mr. Harper is aligning Canadian policy with that of George Bush’s United States.
Which of these Harper policies do you think most aligns Canada with George Bush’s United States?
* Cancelling Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto Accord
* Assigning Fixed Election Dates
* Catering to the NRA-style gun lobby
* Destroying the Kelowna Accord
* Tax increases for the poor, and tax cuts for the rich
* Arming Canada’s Borders
* Bowing to US Softwood Lumber Demands
Seven policies: Seven steps towards a Republican Canada.
It’s time to shine a spotlight on Stephen Harper’s real agenda. More than ever, the Liberal Party of Canada needs your help to defeat this emerging threat.

Who are they paying to write this stuff? Michael Moore?

Here are some ways you can make a difference right now:
1) MAKE A DONATION TODAY to the Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada needs your immediate support. Your tax-deductible donation will help communicate our strong opposition to Stephen Harper’s pillaging of Canada’s values.

Or a Conservative party mole? How else do you explain the appearance of an Adscam invoking word like “pillaging” in a paragraph seeking donations to the Liberal Party?

A donation of as little as $20 is all that stands between a compassionate society, and the continuing smoke and mirror campaign of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

They really ought to put that last “Liberal Save the Canada Fund” plea to video – I suggest Paul Martin and Bono with their arms wrapped around a doe-eyed Jamaican gang member on the sun-baked, dusty intersection of Finch Avenue West and Jane Street.

Someone’s lying;

The issue was whether to book $21.8 million in computer expenses run up by the gun registry in the fiscal year then coming to an end.
Had the money been reported to Parliament as part of the yearly spending estimates, it would have put the troubled registry over budget and forced then-public safety minister Anne McLellan to ask Parliament for additional funds — a political embarrassment just as the Liberals were about to call an election.
John Wiersema, then acting comptroller general, told the Commons public accounts committee he was present when Bloodworth voiced her opposition to any such move.
“Madam Bloodworth indicated that she was unable to recommend that the minister seek supplementary estimates because it would have implications for the pending federal election,” said Wiersema.
“At that point it was clear to me that it was political considerations that (were) the determining factor in that meeting.”
Conservative MP John Williams asked Bloodworth, in general terms, whether it was true she had invoked “political considerations” at the meeting.
The veteran bureaucrat offered a one-word response: “No.”

…on all counts of fraud

SENATE CALLS IN RCMP

[concerning] the actions of Liberal Senator Raymond Lavigne, a late-term Chretien appointment. Lavigne made news a while back when he used Senate resources to cut down some trees on his property. Today, the Senate board of Internal Economy heard that he allegedly filed a false $20,000 travel claim and I’ve heard that his own colleagues are going to call for an RCMP criminal investigation.

More from Angry.
Related.

Commentor “Lorraine”;

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?”

Indeed.

Adscam testimony that we’re hearing surprisingly little about these days…

A former vice-president of Groupaction, told Charles Guité’s fraud trial Wednesday that he feared for his life if he were to blow the whistle on what he saw as suspicious goings on between his ad agency and former prime minister Jean Chretien’s office.
“I wasn’t interested in having a hunting accident in my living room,” he testified. Lambert, who quit Groupaction in 2001, said he felt like his was trapped in a system with many tentacles, at the centre of which was Chretien.

Stay tuned.
Andrew Coyne notices the curious incuriousness as well;

“So the former VP of Groupaction becomes the second person connected with the sponsorship scandal to testify, under oath, to having been afraid someone would kill him — a fact CP neglects to mention until the eighth graf...”

“We’re going to vote against this budget” – Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, 10:26 am, May 3, 2006 .
“We can get by these silly games of chicken, now that the Bloc has signalled they’ll be supporting the government…. they can’t afford an election right now “ – Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, 10:27 am, May 3, 2006
(from a just-concluded interview on John Gormley Live)

The media and many bloggers have been quick to highlight which Liberal Party bigwigs are supporting which Liberal leadership candidate. But what about bloggers?
As a service to the Liblog community and as a nudge to the campaigns to pay attention to ever growing (but admittedly still small) powers of the Liberal blogging community, Cerberus is going to try to keep track of these endorsements. I will have a permanent post in the right-hand column (how ironic) linking to the endorsement page eventually, but for now here is what I have gathered so far.

Bob Rae! Bob Rae! Bob Rae!

Several readers have commented and emailed privately expressing dismay that the Liberals have now chosen to appropriate the Remembrance Day poppy as their newest political prop in the House of Commons. A sample:

“Not so happy was I, watching the Liberals soil the poppy for a cheap and sleazy parlor trick.”
“First they decimate the military, don’t get helicopters to replace the SeaKings but get a new plane for the PM–and then have the nerve to wear a poppy to pose questions in QP.”
“when i was watching Bill Graham going a mile a minute denoucing the softwood deal i was floored at what i saw behind him, Liberal MP’s wearing the poppy. Now I could be wrong but i was always told that we only wear them when the Poppy Campaign is on in November & wear them on special ceremonies & at funerals. So now the liberals are making a mockery of the POPPY.”

Reader Bryanr shared this in the comments a few minutes ago:

update on the Poppies being worn in HofC Apr.27/06, RCL Command office was contacted yesterday as the house was going to have a moment of silence. RCL gave permission for them to be worn, however they were to be removed after the ceremony. As many witnessed they were not & became a political posturing for some liberal MP’s. This has been noted by many member’s of RCL & they have expressed their great concern’s over this as it could set a presidet to future wearings when not Nov11th, i myself for one contacted my provicial command & dominion command & expressed my deep concerns that this could be misconsrcewd by the general public, the other problem was that ARE YOU READY FOR IT, the MEDIA was supposed to have reported on this. Did anybody see that I sure did’nt & I watched CPAC & CTV.(i refuse to watch the Communist brodcast channel)anyways gang that is where it stands for now(film at 11)

(I have a copy of the email from a Legion representative confirming that permission was given for wearing poppies during a period of silence in Parliament on the 27th.)