In Harper and CON universe, bullies rule. (Part 2)

 

The opposition has raised questions about former RCMP Bruno Saccomani's qualification given this, another Harper patronage appointment, as the Canadian ambassador to Jordan.

[...] NDP international development critic Helene Laverdiere, herself a former diplomat, said there is no reason to believe Saccomani has the skills required to fill such an important ambassadorial position.

“At the moment it is one of the hottest region in the world,” she told reporters in French. “We have specialists, professionals who have been in the diplomatic service for years who know the issues who know how to represent Canada more adequately. … This is certainly not someone who has the skills for a position in an area as sensitive as that.”

Bloc Quebecois MP Andre Bellavance alleged the only reason Saccomani received the appointment was because of “his proximity to the prime minister.”

In a previous post, DJ! linked to this, with regard to Saccomani's "diplomatic skills":

The management review report, published in January [2012], paints a grim picture of on-the-job morale for the 117 Mounties who protect the Harpers around the world and across Canada.

"The (review) team found that the examples of conflict in the workplace, harassment, discrimination, intimidation and perceived favouritism given during the interviews were disturbing," says the report.

Evaluators interviewed 41 per cent of the protection unit in December, and found a majority of officers had issues with their supervisor — Supt. Bruno Saccomani. [...]

Some complained about being reprimanded in front of their peers or in public. Mounties reported they felt they were "walking on eggshells" or feared repercussions following the review.

Saccomani appears to have his ardent fans though; look how they gush over him.

Guy Giorno, Harper's former chief of staff, said he's suspected RCMP brass have had Saccomani in their sights for a while.
"This is exactly what the brass was looking for -- to put a bullet into Bruno," he said. "They were happy about this."

Since then, it appears the RCMP have changed their opinion of Saccomani.  Medication taken to curb aggressiveness?  Insider knowledge, applied judiciously to his advantage?

"In his most recent annual performance review, dated March 28 and obtained by Postmedia News, Saccomani receives glowing praise from his manager."

I would guess that Tom Flanagan knows where Saccomani's RCMP manager lives.

More about Harper Cons and their hogs at the trough patronage appointments, at Sixth Estate's blog.

In Harper and CON universe, bullies rule.

Two recent news items regarding the regard PMSHithead has for certain types of people.

First: Shirish Chotalia.

[Public Service Integrity Commissioner Mario Dion] called Chotalia's behaviour "totally unacceptable" and said that in his nearly 2½ years on the job, he's never come across a worse case of behaviour towards employees that shows a "total lack of respect."

He said Chotalia created a "poisoned atmosphere" in the workplace, and that her manner towards not just her staff but to appointed members of the tribunal was often "belittling and humiliating."

Some of Chotalia's behaviour, described in the report, bordered on the bizarre.

Chotalia ordered an employee to wear a set of keys around [their] neck despite complaints it was too heavy. During an earthquake in Ottawa in June 2010, which shook buildings, she refused to allow employees to leave their offices, despite the fact that many buildings in downtown Ottawa were evacuated. "Ms. Chotalia instead proceeded with her own swearing-in ceremony that she had organized that afternoon despite the safety requirements and staff concerns," the report said.

Chotalia's abusive behaviour was not limited to actions against her employees, but also tactically targeted individuals that her boss directed her to malign.

Then, Bruno Saccomani. 

Canada's new ambassador to Jordan comes to this patronage appointment with mixed reviews.  One can only speculate that he knows where *Pierre Poutine* is actually buried.

Given the Harper CPC operating mode, in the House of Commons, in government and internationally, is to bully, is it any surprise that such individuals are praised and promoted?

UPDATE: Chotalia's partisan quasi-legal bullying has been thrown out by the Federal Court, with regard to the case cited above.

In a much-anticipated ruling Wednesday morning, the court has rejected the federal government's attempts to prevent First Nations groups from arguing for better funding for child welfare on reserves.

The ruling means First Nations and the federal government will have a full-blown hearing about whether Ottawa is treating native children unfairly.

"It's a real victory for all the children who have waited so long for this," said Cindy Blackstock, who heads the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and spearheaded the legal challenge.

First Nations groups say Ottawa is discriminating against native kids because the support the feds provide for child welfare on reserves is much lower than what kids off reserves get from provincial governments – even though the need is greater.[...]

[The Harper government] tried to block the case on technicalities, saying it was not fair to compare federal services to provincial services.

Also, un grand merci to BloozGuy who tipped me off to the Bruno Saccomani news items.

Steve's Farm Animals

Peter Van Loan. Vic Toews. Jason Kenney. Dean Del Mastro. Andrew Scheer*.

Is there some unwritten criteria that CON _movers and shakers_ in Harper's CPC must resemble the voracious four-legged residents of Willy Pickton's farm, stuffed into expensive suits?

The smug mug above is of Arthur Hamilton, the CONtempt Party's consigliere on these cases: the Elena Guergis hatchet job, the CPC's varied criminal and/or illegal manipulations during the 2006 elections, and now this.

Oh look, here's another one, eager for the opportunity to stick his snout into the CPC feeding trough.

Oink. Oink.

*anyone who believes that speaker Scheer is no longer a member of Harper's inner circle of CPC koolaid drinkers hasn't been paying attention to his decisions in the House of Commons.

Beyond STFU!

This is another chapter in the PMSHithead "Yippee ki-way mother f**ker!" saga.

Do you remember how, not so long ago, Senator Nancy Ruth Jackman got herself into one hot mess because she suggested to indignant women's organizations who felt threatened by the Harper government's big Stalinist boot that they should STFU?

That was pre-G8 and G20 police rule.

So if you heard on the news that an environmental activist was visited by the RCMP, days after he phoned up the Harper Politburo PMO to express his concern, you'd guess he was some mouthy 20-something radical, right?

You'd be wrong.

What fresh Con hell is this?

Quotes from Dorothy Parker and Goebbels (via Karl Bélanger) seem appropriate today.

Radio-Canada and other news gathering organizations that, unlike Pierre Karl Péladeau and his Quebecor media conglomerate, are dedicated to producing credible journalistic information that contains actual facts are reporting that:

The Harper government has served notice that thousands of same-sex couples who flocked to Canada from abroad since 2004 to get married are not legally wed.

From here.

So. Recently members of PMSHithead's reformaTory caucus, notorious for the control he maintains over his MPs, have been prodding and poking at the *abortion debate*.

Here's an overview of recent forays, fuelled by the fetus lobby elements in the Contempt Party and provided with speaking points from Stevie's 1000 staffers-strong Politburo/PMO.

And now, this may be the first inkling of the Cons' intention to allow erosion of hard-earned rights to same-sex marriage. Nothing that happens under PMSHithead's reign escapes his purview.

"It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion." Joseph Goebbels.

More at Dawg's Blawg, here, with the pic of Stevie camped up in a Village People outfit, one of the many camouflage opportunities the Calgary Stampede provides.

More Con jobs and lying liars.

It's getting to the point where no cover-up so stinky or no lie so MASSIVELY obvious from the Con jobs and the lying liars could be a straw that breaks the camel's back.

The media routinely reports these gaffes, fuster clucks and deliberate obfuscations; it seems at this point the Canadian public expects dishonesty and incompetence from Harper's New©™ Government and has become jaded.

First, from Montreal Simon, we hear more confirmation that Bev Oda is not only a Con job, but a total idiot as well.

A whodunit mystery captured Parliament Hill Friday after the international co-operation minister said she didn’t know who tampered with a document that bears her signature but one she is not certain she signed.

A two-page memorandum recommending the approval of $7,098,758 in funding to the church group KAIROS for its human rights activities was originally signed by two top bureaucrats at the Canadian International Development Agency in September 2009. But someone — it’s unclear who — handwrote “NOT” between the words “you” and “approve” on the memorandum’s last line. [...]

“It’s like a Clue game. We have the minister in the committee with the pen that says she signed it and killed the deal,” said NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar. “I think the minister needs to come clean … she used the department to explain away what was in the end an ideological position.”

Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae said the document was tampered with and changed retroactively so it would look as if CIDA was recommending the faith-based group be chopped. “If you put 'not' in front of a cheque or if you put 'not' in front of a number on a cheque, it is called fraud,” he said.

Then this Con-veeenient (imagine Preston Manning saying the word) event, which blasted the credibility of the last functional Commons Committe that Stevie's bullies had not yet managed to destroy.

It might be Grand Guignol theatre - diverting and crudely funny as hell - if it weren't the future of our country that Stevie Spiteful is willfully and malevolently screwing up.

Circus Ringmaster Stevie Peevie and his troupe.

My virtual roomie fern hill discovered this brilliant website of Canadian political satire.

From one of UrNews items:

Con­ser­v­a­tive spokesman Dun­ning Kruger announced today that he is launch­ing Cirque du Steve’s Freaks and Geeks, a new circus-style show that will com­bine fund-raising for con­ser­v­a­tive causes with get­ting the mes­sage to the grass­roots in key ridings. [...]

“All right-thinking Cana­di­ans love a cir­cus – just look at the polls,” said Kruger. “But they’re sick of Pepsi per­former types from Que­bec with their New Agey ‘foreign-cultures-are-more-spiritual-than-yours’ crap and their fairy cos­tumes. What they want is to get back to the good old days of clap­ping seals, scary strong­men, hall of mir­rors, bearded women, bad suits and cre­ation­ists. Cir­cus for the base is base circus, baby!”

Fea­tured in the show are: Duff­ster, the Human Can­non­ball; Iggy, the Danc­ing Bear; tight-rope walker Big Tony C.; Vic Toews, the Human Pret­zel; John Baird, the Human Han­key; Bev Oda as Humper the Clown; the Amaz­ing Taz­ing Fan­tino; Peter Mack, trained to jump through burn­ing hoops; bearded lady Jason Ken­ney; and more.

More? Oh yeah, babeee! Larry Cannon as MeeMoe the Mime! Reverend Knife-thrower Vellacott aka "Flak the Ripper". Rod Bruinooge in his Magical MASSIVE Kidney Suit! Helena Guergis on her flying trapeze!

And let's not forget the little people: Dimitri Soudas, elephant-poop-scooper extraordinaire! Flaming Regurgitator 'Fatwa' Flanagan!

As US circus founder P.T. Barnum (allegedly) said: "There's a sucker born every minute."

The systemic erosion of democracy (more)

This is how it starts. A narcissistic sociopath takes control of a political party and proclaims: "We can create a country built on solid Conservative values [...] the kind of country I want to lead." Here are a few more quotes:

"Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed."

"Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs."

"The writer is the engineer of the human soul."

"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas."

"Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party."

"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."

The first pronouncement is from Stephen Joseph Harper. The rest are from Joseph Stalin.

Notwithstanding his tactical deployment of tricks perfected by contemporary Republican operatives, Stevie Spiteful's strategy is eerily similar to Stalin's view.

Of the Stalinist regime, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said: "In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State."

Yesterday's display in Parliamentary committee of the contempt which Harper and his thugs have for Canadians is breath-taking. Tony Clement reprised his Attack Parrot™© role, but it was Stockwell Day who cranked it up to a new level of sheer political chutzpah with this:

“Do you think it is right that you can threaten your neighbour with jail time if she doesn’t tell you if she has mental issues or not?” he wrote. “Or who does what chores in the house? Or whether she is a Jew or not? Don't you find that one even a little bit chilling?”

What I find chilling is the sustained campaign of propaganda and disinformation Stevie Spiteful's PMO has waged on every issue it has shoved down the throat of the electorate since the ReformaTories formed their first minority government in 2006.

And as the continuing debacle over the G-8/G-20 demontrates, the Cons' electoral promise of transparence and accountability in government is nothing more than a typical Con job.

The only obstacle to a Canada controlled by Harper's steel fist and administered by his cowering cadre of lying bullies is a purposeful response by Canadian voters.

More crumbling away: Who needs to get nasty feedback or pesky facts entered into the public record?

Federal civil servants won't get to fill out a workplace survey this year because the Conservative government has axed it. [...]

A Statistics Canada official broke the news to colleagues last month in an email obtained by The Canadian Press. "I regret to inform you that plans for the 2010 Public Service Employee Survey are cancelled," Geoff Bowlby, head of the agency's labour statistics division, wrote on June 2. "We received notice from Treasury Board secretariat yesterday evening that funding for the project was not approved for this year. [...]

Neither Treasury Board President Stockwell Day nor his department were immediately able to say how much the survey cost. The government solicits voluntary feedback from its workers every three years to improve programs and services. The survey gives a snapshot of workers' demographics, skills, career expectations and concerns.

ADDED by fern hill: A plug for the Facebook group, Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper, which today passed the 5,000 member mark. We've been raising money and placing newspaper ads to raise awareness of just this issue. Totally grassroots, volunteer. Check it out.

A Con job by any other name

still smells the same.

This old joke has been recently revived and tweaked.


An Alberta cowgirl named Maisey was overseeing her large herd in a remote mountainous pasture, when a brand-new Land Rover advanced toward her out of a cloud of dust.

The driver, a man in a Tom Ford suit, Fry boots, Oakley sunglasses, Rolex watch and Ralph Lauren tie, leaned out the window and shouted to the cowgirl, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"

Maisey looked at the man, then looked at her peacefully grazing herd and calmly answered, "Sure, why not?

The driver parked his car, whipped out his laptop, plugged it into his cell phone, and surfed to a NATO page on the Internet, where he called up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then fed to another NATO satellite that scanned the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The guy then opened the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exported it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he received an email on his Blackberry that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accessed an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet and, after a few minutes, received a response. Finally, he printed out a full-color report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turned to the cowgirl and said, "You have exactly 1,586 animals.

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," said Maisey with amusement, then watched as the man took one and shoved it in the back seat of his car.

Then Maisey said to the guy, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your line of business is, will you give me back my calf? " He thought about it for a second and then said, "Sure, why not?"

"You're a Conservative politician", said Maisey.

"Wow! That's correct," says the man, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required." answered the cowgirl. "You showed up here even though nobody called you. You wanted to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep, by the way."

"Now give me back my dog."

Cherchez la police!

Here's a story that a strong, independent, credible news gathering organization with deep pockets and resourceful journalists should investigate.


It's not an original narrative; tyrants in many countries over the centuries have made use of military or police forces to build, consolidate and maintain their power. What may be unique to Canada is the Faustian deal that a (once-upon-a-time) admired and respected crime-fighting organization has made with a narcissistic and vindictive control freak.

Though Chretien may have been the first to overtly enlist the RCMP in support of an authoritarian agenda, Stevie Spiteful has tapped the right-wing elements of the organization to its murkiest and most fascistic depths. He tested the waters, back in 2005:

During the last federal election the RCMP announced a (fraudulent?) investigation into the Ralph Goodale (Liberal Minister of Finance) Income Trust measures. The announcement was unprecedented, was apparently fraudulent, and is alleged to have seriously changed the outcome of the election [...]

The success of this tactic only whetted Harper's appetite and it remains to be seen whether this is valid speculation:

One is forced to wonder if a hidden agenda of the government was to build the RCMP's technical and surveillance capacity. Are they preparing for the kind of social unrest that might develop in the future if Canada is serious about meeting its G20 pledge of halving its deficit by 2013 – at a time when the world seems heading back into recession? Do our security forces look at the rising tide of strikes and protests in Europe and decide to get ready here?

One need not be paranoid to imagine how abusive and unbridled Stevie and his bullies could and would become if provided with a majority of seats in Parliament.

Will cops be charged?

If an internal investigation is held as Toronto Police Chief Blair has stated, will the thugs and goons in police uniform found guilty of civil rights abuse be held accountable for their actions? Or will it be a witch hunt to provide Bully Billy Boy with the information he needs to retaliate against the cops who 'broke rank' by expressing compassion toward prisoners?

In accounts written by individuals who suffered the "abridgement" of their civil and human rights by riot cops, they mention those who were visibly disturbed by the unwarranted violent behaviour of their comrades in arms.

From here:

An older female guard with short dark hair and glasses is offering me a cup of watered down Tang and instructing my binds be cut. I’m given a second cup of juice and new, looser cuffs. They ask if I’m ok, I’m so confused about why I’m outside the cell and ask “What’s going on?” They ask if I’m alright, and I say “I guess so” then they open the cage and put me back. [...] “What happened?” I ask with a now splitting headache. “You passed out man!” they tell me. [...] My head kills, they ask for medical attention for me, I second the motion and we’re told “Not right now”. [...] The female officer who helped me aids in bringing some watery orange Tang to all the cells. We line up, quietly and broken, for our drink. I find out from Kate that this same female officer broke down and cried with the women at their cell. She was sobbing and apologizing, “This is wrong, you shouldn’t be here. This is all so wrong.”

And this:

Not all officers behaved like thugs. Taylor reports several broke down emotionally in the chaos. [...] The men sardined in Taylor’s cell got the attention of Toronto Special Police Constable White and asked him about the deplorable conditions. “I’m just a pea in a pod. I can’t help,” White said.

Chrystal Ocean at Challenging the Commonplace draws our attention to recent legal and court-directed settlements in support of demonstrators and by-standers illegally arrested by police in 2000 and 2004 in Washington D.C.

Welcome to Bill Blair and Stevie Harper's New©™ Canada.

Harper Giveth - And Taketh Away.

MONTREAL - Federal Heritage Minister James Moore came to Montreal on Friday to play Santa, announcing that the greater Montreal area is the recipient of $20.2 million in arts and culture spending to be spread among 111 arts, heritage and community projects.

The announcement was made during the Montreal International Jazz Festival, not coincidentally one of the two largest beneficiaries.

From here. In addition, Moore delivered the following message:

« Le gouvernement Harper tenait à donner ce fort appui à la culture parce que c'est important pour notre économie,» a dit James Moore.

The Harper government is giving this support to culture because it's important for our economy.

The Harper government. This timely largesse fits the PMO's Message Event Proposal template perfectly.

An MEP template typically includes the following subtitles: Event, Event type, Desired headline, Key messages, Media lines, Strategic objectives, Desired soundbite, Ideal speaking backdrop, Ideal event photograph, Tone, Attire, Rollout materials, Background, and Strategic considerations.

One doesn't need to be a communications expert to grasp the explicit message in Moore's media stunt.

Montréal: good. Toronto: bad.

As for the "desired soundbite", did Stevie's stooge slip up - or not - when he got that 'Harper government' key phrasing in there?

In Stevie Spiteful's and his bullies/boot-lickers' universe, the choices and preferences are clear. Individuals are for him or against him.

And just so one doesn't forget what the ReformaTories' base actually think about culture, let's watch the brilliant Culture en péril again, shall we?



For those curious about the content of Santa Moore's bag of goodies, here's the list. More about Harper's government use of MEPs, here.

Grand merci for the graphic, found in Amanda Woodward's gallery.

Lake of Nightmares ....

Emperor Stevie the Flatulent First believes if you build it, they will come.

It should be interesting to read what the international media will say and write about Lake Ersatz (which a member of Bread'n'Roses adroitly pegged as a shallow pool of ReformaTory talent) and all the attendent perks and hoo-haw.

It's another way for Stevie and his cadre of bullies to manage and massage their message. And the fact he's using money slashed from CIDA funding previously granted to organizations like MATCH International is just the whipped cream on his sundae.

I tend to think about this 2 million $$$ exercise of lunatic largesse in hopeful terms - as Lake ConBeGone. Stevie thinks he knows about feeding sharks but once there's blood in the water, nobody in the water is safe. He has fed a number of his opponents - and members of his own New©™ Government to those yawing jaws.

He could be next. Indigestible though his reign as Supreme Leader was, he will be a choice morsel chunk when his time comes.

Remembering Audre Lorde's words.

Last year I wrote a post about a woman whose rapist was charged, brought to trial and found guilty - in spite of considerable systemic, social and legal resistance. Sonwabo Mangcongoza was supported through this endeavour by a women's organization dedicated to ending violence against women and children in South Africa.

"Your silence will not protect you", a quote from Audre Lorde concluded that piece. I'm reposting it as it resonates forcefully and may provide inspiration, given recent events.

Audre Lorde said:

"I have come to believe over and over again, that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood....

My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you ... and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us. The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken."

From The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, Sister Outsider.

And check out "Yell Louder" at A Creative Revolution, with its powerful visual punctuation.

It's Okay if You're a ReformaTory.

There's a reason we call them Con jobs. In this morning's blogpost, Canadian Cynic: You have to give him credit for initiative demonstrates the fine art of prevarication, also known in older times as selling snake oil.

Andrew Coyne has more about that splendid duo in his aptly named: Rahim & Patrick’s Don’t Pay a Cent Event; he deconstructs their initiative.

Let’s assume everyone’s telling the truth. Rahim Jaffer and his partner, Patrick Glémaud, never got paid for their activities. They were simply making inquiries about the terms and conditions on which certain types of government grants might be available to certain companies. The companies in question never hired them to act as lobbyists. And nobody got a dime of government money. How do we make sense of this?

The scrutiny to which these 'businessmen' have been subjected may very well be the flip side of a recent incident regarding an international cooperation project based in Halifax.

For years, the Nova Scotia Gambia Association has sent Canadian nurses, students and other volunteers overseas to teach HIV-awareness and other health education programs to people in the small West African countries of Gambia and Sierra Leone.

This year, the non-profit group decided to bring eight of its Gambian staff to Canada, to attend the group's 25th anniversary celebrations in Halifax, and to talk to students in local schools about life in Africa.

A Halifax church and a handful of schools across Nova Scotia raised $23,000 to pay the costs of bringing the Gambians to Canada. But plans for the trip were cancelled this week when Mr. Kenney rejected visitor visa applications for the group.

More about the organization, including its board membership.

Of course, speculating that Jason Kenney may be recoiling at the moment from initiatives that involve dusky-skinned people, especially those that do not have the right party and correct church affiliation would be premature until more information is available.

Or until Harper's bullies cut Jaffer and Glémaud off and let them twist in the wind.

When Lawyers Get All Lawyeristic ... with update

you know they must be working hard for Harper's New™ Government.

When you read this, a certain quote from Henry VI (Part 2) does come to mind - 'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers'.

A government lawyer yesterday disputed the Military Police Complaints Commission’s right to see certain government records on the matter and refused to even set a date for handing over others.

“The documents will be given to your counsel when they are good and ready,” Justice Department lawyer Alain Préfontaine told the inquiry. The tone of Mr. Préfontaine’s response prompted astonishment from Glenn Stannard, the acting chair of the commission.

“I find that to be close to offensive, not only to this panel but also to the public,” Mr. Stannard said. “The government of Canada can’t tell us how long it’s going to take to get the documents?” [...]

The Justice Department official refused several times to say when documents might be released, first saying this was a secret between him and the government of Canada. “That is not something I am at liberty to discuss with you. That is covered by the solicitor-client privilege.”

When Mr. Stannard asked for the name of someone in government who could come before the panel and give a date for the documents’ release, Mr. Préfontaine replied: “I do not perceive that it’s my obligation to answer that question.”

Mr. Préfontaine said numerous requests from the commission are making life difficult for government record keepers because they have to keep screening more of them as new demands are made.

What MASSIVE nerve! A Commission established by Parliament requests documents in order to meet its mandate! How dare it defy a flunky lawyer from the Justice Department?

Is Alain Préfontaine is auditioning for interested in a future in public service as an arrogant politician in the ReformaTory Con Party - and thus performing for his real boss?

Grand merci to our dawgy friend for the tip.
Update: Dr Dawg continues to sniff out more of Prefontaine's stinky business. Apparently, when you deal with Justice Dept. lawyers, you can get screwed coming and going.

Out of the mouths of blabbing rightwing idiots.

"We need an election to get rid of most of the opposition, non party status for the libs would be nice." As Canadian Cynic: The unbearable inconvenience of dissenting viewpoints and Sister Sage - Oh my, Mary T, Are You Lobbying for a ….Totalitarian Regime? - point out, that perspective is likely at the heart of the ReformaTory agenda. Eliminationism Nation - wipe out all opposition.

And about that "tough on crime" propaganda that the Con jobs are so fundamentally fond of promoting: when will the RCMP arrest the Prime Suspect Minister Harper for his illegal machinations and complicity in torture?

The pic? Not from last evening's Best/Worst Dressed at the Oscars©™.

Stevie: Looking for love in all the wrong places.

Over at Strategery! The tactical brilliance of Stephen Harper, C.C. lists those Blogging Tardies who are licking one another all over in a paroxysm of ecstatic relief that (less-popular-than-fried-onion-ring) Leader has turned his cylon gaze back to Parliament.

Meanwhile, Montreal Simon spanks and flogs Stevie teh Spiteful in public, marvelously.

Valentine's Day is approaching. May I remind you all about this brilliant idea, following up on the momentum of the Pro-Democracy Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament rallies.

And. Also. Our very own DAMMIT JANET! notion for curing what ails the Lardy Leader of the ReformaTories.

This is an effigy. Make it as minuscule as its subject deserves or as bloated as your penetrative tool of choice allows. Have fun.

Bully Baird or Talibanny Pacheco?

Progressive Blogger Queer Thoughts investigates how and when John Baird was outed as a gay man.

Was it a ReformaTory colleague who spilled the beans on CBC?

Or did a few insiders know of Baird's sexual orientation and use the information judiciously? Ricky at QT digs deep and finds information at LieSite, from June 2006.

"Harper rejected the candidacy of pro-marriage candidate John Pacheco during the Dec. 2005 Ottawa West nominations in order to protect the party’s star candidate, homosexual activist John Baird. Baird is a gay activist and staunch proponent of homosexual 'marriage'. In the provincial legislature Baird spoke in favour of a provincial gay marriage law striking the words "husband" and "wife" from all Ontario legislation. In the legislature Baird went so far as to heckle one of his own provincial Conservative colleagues who opposed the gay marriage law.

In 2003 Baird was asked by Stephen Harper to serve as co-chair for his leadership campaign. And in the federal election of 2004, John was again asked by Stephen Harper to serve as Ontario co-chair for the National Campaign."

Egad. Bully Baird or Talibanny Pacheco? Not that I'd ever vote for a ReformaTory, but it's obvious why Stevie chose Baird. The party faithful or the 'full-metal-religious-zealot'?

Harper ReformaTories: mash-up of theocracy and stalinism.

They LIE.

They lie they lie they lie THEY LIE!

It starts with the seeds of casual exaggerations or tiny prevarications. Those sprout in warm ReformaTory manure, a pungent mash-up of theocratic arrogance and contemporary stalinism.

When they're ready for transplanting, they are lovingly wrapped in rhetoric and faxed/emailed to their acolytes & the sycophants (aka the MPs). They are proclaimed as self-evident truths by a phalynx of Attack Parrots™© ever ready to shout down any reasonable objection or the judicious presentation of actual facts contradicting them because ....

They LIE.

They lie they lie they lie THEY LIE!

Stevie, his bullies and their machinations are now indeed transparent: their tactics are obvious. The emperor has no clothes.

The growing, growling citizenry has caught on to the ReformaTory game.

They LIE.

They lie they lie they lie THEY LIE!


In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State - Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Will Canadians accept this, in our country?

I believe not.



Apologies to Jem Rolls for borrowing a particular phrasing, cadence and spirit of his spoken word poetry - though it captures perfectly the imperiousness and arrogance of the ReformaTories.