Stephen Taylor is *Indignant*

The director of the National Citizens Coalition wants Harper to cut up the "taxpayer credit card" that has been loaned to Bev Oda because she has demonstrated little respect for ... hold on!

What exactly has Oda done that Cashmere Tony, Christian Paradis (here and here), Peter MacKay (here and here) and Bruce Carson have ^NOT in their own way done, so much more spectacularly and worth a helluva lot more of taxpayers' money than a $16 glass of orange juice at the Savoy Hotel?

Oh. Wait. Bev Oda is a female cabinet minister. I'd forgotten that PMSHithead and his band of CON bullies established quite a different standard of accountability and transparence for them. Ask Helena Guergis.

Note: I would link to Taylor's tweet but it appears that he has blocked me, after one or perhaps one hundred too many snarky bon mots lobbed in his direction.

This is the best I can do. For folks without a magnifying glass, just click on the screen cap below to see a larger version.

With a grand merci to my co-blogger fh, an expert in the use of the Capture app. for Macbooks.

"The worst government is the most moral ..."

… when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression."

The late columnist HL Mencken coined many epigraphs that apply to Stevie Spiteful's five-year rule and his chokehold on Parliament.

The above may seem incongruous, given the debates centered upon Minister Oda's declared admission that she did know about the addition of *NOT* to a legal document after it had been signed. But from the the HarperCon perspective denying funding to KAIROS was an opportune and judicious action and therefore, moral. Read Catherine Porter's excellent analysis as to why that is, here.

Consider the "moral sins" - rightfully or not attributed to ReformaTory MPs who had to leave Harper's Cabinet.

Maxime Bernier, Helena Guergis: in spite of many administrative and blunders, what ultimately did each of them in was the taint suggested by news reports that featured words like *biker chick* and *busty hookers*.

And remember, Diane Ablonczy is still not a full-fledged minister; observers suspect her past support for the funding of Toronto's Gay Pride events is the reason.

So, to recap: any implied support for non-marital and non-heterosexual sex appears to be grounds for being dismissed from Cabinet. Unless you're Vic Toews, of course.

We suspected Jason Kenney was still a virgin but who knew John Baird was a monk?

"No one has ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the masses." HL Mencken

Grand merci to Politics and its Discontents.

Should Oda go blonde?

This photograph of the Minister for International Bullying Cooperation, hiding behind her cloud of tobacco smoke (Rona Ambrose was busy elsewhere) went viral after the Odascam/Negate debacle broke in Canadian political news.

Many have noted the eerie ressemblance to Roy Orbison.

My advice to Bev Oda: lose the jet-black hair-dye. If you let it go, eventually you'll turn into a blonde because the fumes from the cigarettes you're chain-smoking will stain your hair yellow. (Ever visited a heavy smoker's den and noticed the patina of nicotine tar clinging to the walls and ceiling?) And Lord knows Stevie's HarperCons could use another diversion in the House of Commons.

Is there anyone proficient with Photoshop out there willing to show us what a blonde Oda might look like?

Attention, Socons

Referring to the Citizen article I linked to yesterday, Chris Selley writes:

Well, well, well. As the Ottawa Citizen’s Elizabeth Payne reports, Canada’s Minister for International Co-operation now has no problem with funding abortion infrastructure in Third World countries where abortion is legal. But … but … what about all that vote-courting “no Canadian money for abortions” bluster back in April? Aren’t we now risking a terrible “divide [in] the Canadian population,” as Stephen Harper warned? Well, no. Of course not. It was just a ruse. Attention, social conservatives: You’ve been had. Again. And to borrow a line, it’s not going to stop until you wise up.

While the PMO is insisting that nononono, we are NOT funding abortions, the base is pissed.

LieShite:

In a shocking about-face, pro-abortion activist and Minister of International Cooperation Bev Oda has said that the Canadian government is now open to funding abortion under its G8 maternal health plan.
. . .
"Bev Oda worked closely with Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups during the G-8 discussions and made pro-abortion statements at that time,” commented CLC national organizer Mary Ellen Douglas in a press release today. “She eventually conformed to Party policy regarding maternal health at the last moment. It is now very clear that she was merely biding her time."

The Freaks are discussing it too and my Facebook friend Connie writes:

Can someone please explain this to me because it looks an awful lot like the socons just got screwed again.

So, socons, as mothers used to say to daughters back in the neolithic, why would a man buy a cow if he could get the milk for free? You're being milked. And no doubt sneered at to boot.

Yo! Fetus Fetishists! Con Government Does Fund Abortion

Illegal ones, too.

Despite its refusal to consider abortion in its maternal-health plan, the Harper government has given financial support to an international agency that provides abortion illegally in some African countries.

It's a very coy article and one wonders what the point of it is.

In a related story, the Ottawa Citizen claims that Bev Oda has seen the light on family planning.

Fresh from a fact-finding trip to Mali and Mozambique, Stephen Harper's minister in charge of delivering the federal government's $1.1-billion commitment to improving maternal and child health, is singing a different tune, and it is one that includes funding for family planning and even indirect support for abortion, if Canada is asked.

International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda seems to have returned from Africa with a more nuanced vision of how Canada can help reduce hundreds of thousands of maternal deaths every year than the one originally offered by her government.

Here we go with the nuancy shit again.

Asked if you could improve maternal mortality rates without family planning, Oda, during a telephone interview, replied: "Of course not."

She said she has always understood the importance of family planning to reducing maternal mortality, adding that it was a topic of much discussion during her trip in meetings with government officials, health officials, and NGOs in small villages.

Oda said the governments of Mozambique and Mali are both highly supportive of family planning, including abortion in some cases, and they like working with Canada, because it is considered very flexible. "We are not seen as having stipulated certain paradigms ... or having any particular direction. We say 'How can we help? What is the most effective way?'"

Oda said the controversy around Canada's G8 initiative and abortion was largely limited to Canada and is not an issue in either Mali or Mozambique.

Abortion is legal in both countries, when a woman's life is considered to be at risk, which, effectively, means that most women don't have access to abortion.

Still, Oda said Canada would support abortion infrastructure if asked. "As long as it is legal within the country and it's a legal procedure ... if we were asked to help in that way, we would do that."
. . .
But it is refreshing to see a minister from a government that began with an ideologically simplistic view of the issue concede something that those working in the field have long understood: "It's very complicated."

Any bets on when Bev will hit the pavement in front of the proverbial bus when the fetus fetishists find out about this?

Uh-oh.

Bev Oda shows her true colours and should be removed as International Co-operation Minister says Campaign Life Coalition.

TORONTO, Sept. 2 /CNW/ - International Co-operation Minister, Bev Oda has returned to Canada from Africa and has again been stating her personal opinions on her blogs regarding family planning and abortion in third world countries.

In a news article Oda stated that abortion is legal in Mozambique and Mali when a women's life is in danger. She said this means most women do not have access to abortion.

"Bev Oda once again shows her preference on "access to abortion" as she did at the time of the G-8 controversy," said Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC). "Surely the Prime Minister must have known that a Minister as pro-abortion as Oda would attempt to impose her own views within the implementation of the Canadian goals to provide help to women and children in third world countries."

"Bev Oda worked closely with Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups during the G-8 discussions and made pro-abortion statements at that time. She eventually conformed to Party policy regarding maternal health at the last moment," said Mary Ellen Douglas, CLC National Organizer. "It is now very clear that she was merely biding her time."

Campaign Life Coalition calls on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to remove Bev Oda from her position as Minister of International Co-operation since she cannot seem to follow Conservative Party Policy on the international stage.