So prophetic, so appropriate.

"Once the toothpaste is out of the tube it's going to be very hard to get it back in." - H.R."Bob" Haldeman

That is a Watergate reference.

Stephen Harper - ever the opportunist and at times, plagiarizer - deployed that quote when describing the political situation in Egypt during the Arab Spring when Mubarak stepped down, throwing his authoritarian regime into a tailspin.

We are reminded these days by the spectacle unfolding in the Senate and in the House of Commons, with regard to allegations of criminal fraud, corruption, collusion and subversion of the Parliamentary process, how perfectly appropriate that analogy is.

And we salute Corporal Greg Horton, one brave individual RCMP officer who has rigorously pursued this criminal investigation, interviewing many hostile or fearful people, and finally, sifting through hundreds of documents and an ocean-sized cesspool of obfuscations to shine the light of justice upon some very ugly CPC machinations.

At this point, some in the media are playing it coy, aware that the teflon-coated Harper may yet walk away unbesmirched by the volcanic eruption of shit his Con government has produced.

The Answer: not a CON minister.

Must read from Sixth Estate today.

Question of the day: Is Theresa Spence’s Alleged Fiscal Mismanagement Serious Because She is an Indian, or Because She Is Not a Conservative Cabinet Minister? 

Everything you knew and or suspected about the odious, vile tactics of Harper's Politburo is exposed, with regard to this tactical leak to the media.

Next question of the day: Why is the "Indian" Peter Penashue getting preferential treatment from Elections Canada?

Answer: He is a CON minister.

Added: The graphic above.

How CONvenient!

The trial for Harper adviser Bruce Carson was set to resume in late October.  Following the RCMP investigation into Carson's actions while he worked in the PMO,  he was charged with fraud on the government, also known as influence peddling.

Is anybody in the Canadian media shocked to hear that it's been delayed to July 2013?  StunTV?  Anyone?

APTN is certainly not surprised by this delaying tactic.  Their investigative journalists have been on this most news-worthy story like velcro since the first stench of unethical dealings and insider contacts emerged from Carson's dealings. 

One hopes this trial clearly exposes PMSHithead and his Con Politburo's ongoing cosy connections with corporate lobbyists, with crooks and possibly, with organized crime.  

Grand merci to Dred Tory for the update. The picture of Bruce Carson was found here.

More of Harper's Warped View of Democracy.

According to a news item that quotes Minister of State for Francophonie Bernard Valcourt:

No reason to boycott the Francophone Summit, said Minister Valcourt to The Associated Press. According to him, the Congolese people could benefit from the presence of foreigners in its country.

Unless of course, these visitors are present to ensure that women and children violated during war and armed conflicts have their human and legal rights respected.

The Harper government trashed and scrapped the Canadian NGO Rights and Democracy, not before hounding its director Remy Beauregard to death and grinding its projects into the dust, including Monitoring the Work of International Criminal Bodies in Pursuing Crimes of Sexual Violence Committed During Armed Conflicts in Africa.

From here:

Even before war erupted in the Congo, women and girls were treated as second-class citizens. Both the law and social norms of the country define the woman's role as that of a person who is subordinate to men. Although women are often one of the main - if not the main - source of support within the family, the Congolese Family Code dictates that women must obey their husband, the recognized head of the household. The country's customs and practices also regard women and girls as subordinates.

In the past few years, brutality against civilians, and sexual violence in particular, have constituted an integral part of the war in the Congo. The various armed groups involved in acts of sexual violence against women and girls continue to be rewarded for their crimes by both their leaders and their powerful allies.

According to the activists, the situation of rape victims is exacerbated by the stigma attached to the violence they have suffered. In many cases, these women and children are ostracized and relegated to the margins of society.

The violence perpetrated against women comes in many forms, including assassination, massacre, rape, sexual slavery, kidnapping, unlawful detention, enrolment of young girls in the combatant forces, forced prostitution, etc. Women's organizations have estimated that, at the height of the war, 100 women were raped each month in the sole region of South Kivu, the epicentre of the armed conflict.

Needless to say, the victims of gender-based violence undergo extreme suffering as a result of the psychological damage and physical injuries inflicted upon them, in addition to having to deal with society's rejection of them. But how can we measure the extent of this problem? We can't, according to Lysette Banza, who points out that "most female victims of rape prefer to keep silent in order to avoid being cast out of society or singled out. This explains the existence of a dark figure in relation to the official statistics on women who have been raped."

In view of this, human rights organizations have undertaken to conduct studies aimed at assessing the scope of the problem and to propose possible avenue of solutions, while identifying those responsible.

Thus Stephen Harper will attend Le Sommet de la francophonie in the DRC, and will be treated lavishly will all the fawning and attendant largesse that one tinpot dictator can expect, in such a *democratic* environment.

Given PMSHithead's own triumphant and CONtemptuous defilement of democratic traditions and practices in Canada, it is only fitting.

Tweet source.

"I want MY justice!"

Just when you thought the Contempt Party couldn't be any more leg-humping contemptuous and arrogant, along comes Tony "Cashmere" Clement to crank it up a notch.

[...] the Treasury Board president is demanding an apology from the NDP, which levelled the accusation last week.

"Now they've been shown to be a bunch of liars and I want my justice," Clement said Tuesday, moments after being cleared by House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer.

Clement added that "a liar should apologize" and even hinted at legal action should New Democrat MP Charlie Angus refuse to apologize for initiating a "smear campaign full of lies." [...]

The issue arose last week when the NDP noticed that the official transcript, known as Hansard, had been altered to delete Clement's response of "sure" when asked if he would publicly disclose all the applications from municipalities in his riding for a share of the $50-million G8 legacy fund. [...]

Clement told reporters his repeated use of the word "sure" is a verbal tick, a way of hesitating while he formulates his response to questions, much the same way other people use "you know" or "OK." He said he had no intention of agreeing to the NDP request to produce the application forms for funding.

Boulerice said Clement's continued refusal to produce the documents shows the NDP has nothing to learn from Clement "about telling the truth."

Methinks the knave doth protest too much and way too vigorously. The Politburo will be coming along shortly to check Tony's meds, as per Stevie's instructions, to avoid a messy melt-down.

Merci to our friend in car-wreck hilarity, canadian cynic.

Move along now.

So. This morning Con Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the families of murder victims (and "lifelong victims' right advocate"?) can now STFU "move on with their lives".

That would be just ducky with us if it meant Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu would now be shutting his lying yap.

Oh. Wait. Boisvenu holds one of those Harper-appointed patronage-awarded Senate Seats, right? And the Cons' Hard-On Crime Bill C-10 must pass through the Upper Chamber shortly.

That means he still has some water-carrying to do for Stevie's Contempt Party and their reformaTory cronies.

Nonetheless it does seem those set props tearful survivors of crime victims the Politburo/PMO once regularly trotted out for photo ops with PMSHithead have joined the growing ranks of the unemployed.

A Convenient Anti-Semitism.

How might one describe a political campaign run by 'people of pallour' intent upon creating division within a historically cohesive community of 'people of colour' - all in a day's work of carefully calculated strategy?

Racist. Yes. Consider the following analogy.

White *war-room* tacticians calibrate the degree of harassment required to get a current Black MP - who has efficiently and compassionately represented the electorate for 12 years - to resign, mid-office. During the last election campaign, the tacticians selected a Black candidate to run against him. They used campaign literature that suggested the incumbent was dishonourable and lying to his constituents, and that he'd become a complacent *Uncle Tom* who advanced his own interests rather than those of his community.

Undaunted by their candidate's defeat, they arranged for his employment in the riding as a "regional aide" for a Cabinet Minister, which provided him with a taxpayer-funded position from which he would continue campaigning for the party.

This is exactly what the Con Party is doing to undermine the honourable Irwin Cotler. Ex-reformaTory insider, current #StunTV infotainer and *ethically oily* Ezra Levant has called him a "porch Jew". The Cons have given a patronage job to their candidate, a religious fundamentalist. And they have punished the riding by rejecting most of the applications from shuls for federal security funding to the Communities at Risk Infrastructure Pilot Fund.

The usual suspects first denied dirty tricks were in play in Cotler's riding then they parroted official talking points.

A Conservative official confirmed to The Globe and Mail that the party is trying to identify the vote in Mr. Cotler’s riding, which it does on a continuing basis across the country. In this case, a company called Campaign Research that has been linked to Ontario and federal Conservatives is behind the calls. [...]

He said the “script” does not mention a by-election. However, if people ask why the party is phoning, callers say “there are rumours that Irwin Cotler may resign causing a by-election,” the Conservative official said.

“It’s an honest answer to the question. There have been rumours for a long time that Cotler is going to step down,” he said.

It's no surprise to observe the flames of such rumours are persistently fanned by the Cons.

Cotler's response: “I am alive, well and working.”

The Con "script" is of course the elimination of all real or perceived *Liberal strongholds*. It makes no difference if the tactics deployed create strife in the Jewish community. Ultimately, since all Con caucus member accept the goals of the reformaTory party - which may or not be dominionist and consequently deeply anti-semitic - the actual damage such political game-playing may wreak is moot; it's ^NOT personal, merely political.

Well, except for that wee Liberal bit.

Lunatic fringe? Just watch him.

UPDATES:

Even NatPo confirms the facts about Cotler's riding.

Susan Delacourt pulls the big scary picture together, here and here.

And Alison at Creekside gives credit to other bloggers keeping track of the Harper Government™©.

Contempt AND Control: two Cons for the price of one

The transformation of Canada into a banana republic continues apace. The Canadian Wheat Board? Gone.

John Doyle on reformaTory MPty suits attacking the CBC:

In 2008, both the minority Conservative government and the Conservative Party itself were hell-bent on introducing what was essentially a morals clause to the regulations for funding Canadian film and television. A portion of an omnibus bill amending the Income Tax Act sought to allow the Heritage Minister to withdraw tax credits from productions determined to be “contrary to public policy.” The clause was so broad it meant TV and film productions deemed morally offensive by a government ministry could have their tax credits reversed. [...]

This government’s focus of attack on the CBC is bizarre enough as it is. For a start, it follows the corporate agenda of Quebecor, a competitor to the CBC. It’s also a witch hunt that in the case of Brent Rathgeber and Sun News Network is priggishly focused on what CBC personalities earn and what CBC spends on cars, hotels and liquor. It seems as plain as a poke in your eye that the CBC is being bludgeoned because the Conservative Party finds its reporting suspect, but the angle of attack is a ugly prurience about salaries and perks.

The justification for the attacks and the demand for information is that CBC is taxpayer-funded. However, the real reason seems to be that CBC is perceived as not reflecting small “c” conservative values. A lot of what emanates from the arts in Canada does not reflect those values, and those artists and institutions receive taxpayer money. Remember that. Think about who’s next on the attack list. That morals clause in the 2008 bill may have died, but it’s a fair bet the urge to assert such control over government-funded arts has not.

The Con bullies claim they're representing the dozens of people who have signed their petition - which has a scant 4000 signatures - yet disparaged the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who expressed their opposition to Stevie Spiteful's continued prorogation of Parliament.

Lawrence Martin deconstructs his Politburo tactics.

The blending of sport and the military, with the government as the marching band, is part of the new nationalism the Conservatives are trying to instill. It is another example of how the state, under Stephen Harper’s governance, is becoming all-intrusive.

Conservatism, as defined by Ronald Reagan, was about getting government off the backs of the people. Conservatism, as practised by team Harper, is more akin to an Orwellian opposite. State controls are now at a highpoint in our modern history. There is every indication they will extend further.

The propaganda machine has become mammoth and unrelenting. The parliamentary newspaper The Hill Times recently found there are now no fewer than 1,500 communications staffers on the governing payroll. In the days of the King and St. Laurent governments, there were hardly any. In recent decades, the numbers shot up, but Mr. Harper is outdoing all others, a primary example being his institution and maintenance of a master control system wherein virtually every government communication is filtered through central command.

In his minority governments, the rationale was that tight controls were necessary for survival. With a majority, it was thought that the controls that brought on parliamentary shutdowns and contempt of Parliament rulings would ease up. Those who thought that way didn’t know Stephen Harper.

In recent weeks, the government has invoked closure or time limits on debate at a record-breaking clip. [...]

On the propaganda ledger, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney put on a show in committee last week. In what may have been a first, his spinners set up a billboard behind him replete with bright Conservative blue colours and flags. Everything except a marching band.

In the message-massaging department, news has arrived that the government is imposing new communications controls on the RCMP. The same is being done with the Defence Department. Secrecy surrounds the government’s plans to spend a whopping $477-million on a U.S. military satellite.

State surveillance, the rationale being security, is being taken to new levels. The Conservatives are bringing in legislation that will compel Internet service-providers to disclose customer information. A Canada-U.S. agreement is on the way that will contain an entry-exit system that will track everyone.

In Parliament, more and more ministers are showing up for Question Period with prewritten answers. If the scripted stuff is far afield of the questions posed, it doesn’t matter. In our shining democracy, they use it anyway.

Research that contradicts the government line is discarded. Civil liberties fade, new jails proliferate. Those who speak out better watch out. When the NDP’s Megan Leslie stated an opposing view on the Keystone XL Pipeline, she was accused by the government of treachery.

The Rovian tactics are deliberate and classic; they've been used successfully by centuries of tyrants who foster a climate of division: those who get the boot in the face and those who cheer it on. Guess where Stevie's acolytes and sycophants are found.

Dan Gardner nails it.

[...]why do the Conservatives continue to act like the elbows-up, stick-swinging, trash-talking goons who bullied their way through five years of minority government?

Public safety minister Vic Toews has repeatedly accused those who oppose the government's omnibus crime bill of being "pro-crime." Environment minister Peter Kent said NDP MPs who went to the United States to voice opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline had behaved "treacherously." Dean Del Mastro, parliamentary secretary to the minister of heritage, publicly suggested Liberal MP Justin Trudeau isn't a good Catholic and shouldn't be invited to speak at Catholic schools.[...]

Harper is more than a political obsessive. He's a passionate obsessive. Almost frighteningly so.

As Conservative strategist Rod Love told author Lawrence Martin, Harper and other Reformers seethed - and rightly so - at the way the Chrétien-era Liberals framed them as the lunatic fringe. "Others got over it," Love observes in Martin's book Harperland.

"Harper? It was just burned in his psyche. So when he came to power it was payback time. This wasn't just about going after someone in the Commons in the day, then going out for a beer at night. This was about destruction."

The same description surfaces over and over. Stephen Harper doesn't want to beat the other side; he wants to destroy them. They're not opponents; they're the enemy. As for the depth of his ideological feelings, the prime minister's colleagues use the word "hatred" to describe his antipathy to liberalism.

When politics is everything, when opponents are enemies, when there's hatred in your belly, certain things follow. Ruthlessness, for one. Personal attacks. A refusal to accept the legitimacy of different views and to work with those who hold them.

Stephen Harper is only one man, of course, but unlike every Liberal prime minister his dominance of his party is total. He effectively built it from the ground up. It is his party. And its personality mirrors that of its creator and master.

The Conservatives did not behave the way they did in the past because they had a minority of the seats in the House of Commons. They behaved that way because they are the party of Stephen Harper. They still are. And so they still behave that way.

David Frum wrote about the organisational psychosis that has collectively seized Republicans in the US. Read it and reflect upon the eerie ressemblance with the lock-step mind-set talking points that supporters of Stevie's Contempt Party use to defend their tenuous grasp on reality.

Contempt of Parliament by the Cons

Dan Gardner is a respected journalist. He takes great care to remain scrupulously objective, at times maddeningly so.

Thus his article about the Harper government is a powerful deconstruction of the neo-Conservative modus operandi.

Parliament has been a particularly nasty place for years but that was a consequence of minority government, many pundits said. The government was always in danger and so the Conservatives behaved as if they were in a non-stop election campaign. A majority would change that, the pundits said after the election. The Conservatives will calm down, drop the nastiness, and deliver a more statesmanlike government.

But that hasn’t happened. [...]

They are the party of Stephen Harper.

Tom Flanagan recently described the prime minister’s personal interests. “He doesn’t really care much about money,” Flanagan told the Hill Times. “He likes to watch hockey and so on, but he doesn’t have a lot of active interests that he wants to pursue. He doesn’t play golf. He doesn’t play tennis. He doesn’t care much for travel. He doesn’t paint. He doesn’t fish. You know, he loves politics.”

Indeed. Stephen Harper has been obsessing about political power his whole life. It’s what he does. It’s all he does.

The same is true of many of the top people around him. John Baird, Jason Kenney, Tony Clement, Peter Van Loan. They’ve spent their entire lives in politics. It’s all they know.

But Harper is more than a political obsessive. He’s a passionate obsessive. Almost frighteningly so.

As Conservative strategist Rod Love told author Lawrence Martin, Harper and other Reformers seethed — and rightly so — at the way the Chrétien-era Liberals framed them as the lunatic fringe. “Others got over it,” Love observes in Martin’s book Harperland. “Harper? It was just burned in his psyche. So when he came to power it was payback time. This wasn’t just about going after someone in the Commons in the day, then going out for a beer at night. This was about destruction.”

The same description surfaces over and over. Stephen Harper doesn’t want to beat the other side; he wants to destroy them. They’re not opponents; they’re the enemy. As for the depth of his ideological feelings, the prime minister’s colleagues use the word “hatred” to describe his antipathy to liberalism.

When politics is everything, when opponents are enemies, when there’s hatred in your belly, certain things follow. Ruthlessness, for one. Personal attacks. A refusal to accept the legitimacy of different views and to work with those who hold them.

Stephen Harper is only one man, of course, but unlike every Liberal prime minister his dominance of his party is total. He effectively built it from the ground up. It is his party. And its personality mirrors that of its creator and master.

The Conservatives did not behave the way they did in the past because they had a minority of the seats in the House of Commons. They behaved that way because they are the party of Stephen Harper. They still are. And so they still behave that way.

In their lavish and deliberate use of Rovian tactics, Stalinist control and Goebbelsian communication strategies the former Reformatories, as directed by Harper have rebranded themselves by securing the name of a once honourable political party, but they are fundamentally still the cabal of greedy, ideologically-bound carpet-baggers that Preston Manning gathered and released - like a herd of rapacious hyenas.

The robo-calling they deployed during this year's election campaign may be surfacing again, this time to unseat Montreal MP Irving Cotler. It would seem Con insiders expect the Liberal veteran will shuffle off into the sunset and that his riding will be the next battlefield for a quick and dirty by-election campaign.

The practice of *strategic incapacitation* the Cons apply in Parliament is ^NOT inadvertent. It is all-encompassing and it is indeed ruthless.

More Contempt of Parliament from Con Jobs

Gosh Rob, sorry that your tax-payer funded sinecure is keeping you from your afternoon nap. Oh wait. It's ^NOT.

Here's another look at Anders, when he's accessorized with Attack Parrot©™ speaking points and goosed into action. Note the high school drama production quality to the Con response to Anders' planted question. The Contempt party apparently uses the same stage manager as SunTv does.

Originally posted at Buckdog and of course, at Gritchik.

So you think you can ozone?

Canadian Cynic observes: Holy fuck ... Canada's Minister of Environment Peter Kent is either retarded or drunk again.

Our response: I'll take *Substance Abuse By Contempt Party Ministers* for $200, Alex.

Here's the news story that precipitated the Question Period classic obfuscation by the Harper Con jobs.

Aaaaand once more, this brilliant spoof of e-Harmony, produced by Greenpeace.

Enjoy.

More DJ! posts about Kent.

It's the Contempt Culture!

Also known as a sense of entitlement, and it's brought to you by Harper's government of Cons.

Since 2008, Canada's top military commander has used government VIP aircraft to fly to sporting events, galas and a Caribbean holiday, racking up a bill of more than $1-million, CTV News is reporting.

Passenger logs requested by the broadcaster through the Access to Information Act provide details of several flights taken by General Walter Natynczyk, the Chief of the Defence Staff. [...]

In total, $732,366.50 went towards flights to attend hockey and football games in various cities across the country.

From here.

That is what SHithead's CONTEMPT government fosters: no accountability and no decency. The line-up at the feeding troughs starts on the right.

No wonder the Cons are slashing Environment Canada's budget. *Interesting* priorities.

Get used to it. With the Cons and their Lying Liars at the helm of this country it's going to get worse.

via Dan Gardner, on twitter.

Josée Verner: One hell of a Sore Loser

It appears Contempt Party incumbents not re-elected to Parliament on May 2 found a way to punish the electors in their riding.

Many, such as former Con MP and new Senator Josée Verner, shredded the entire content of their file cabinets.

Citizens who experienced problems regarding the provision of services from federal programs or issues with ministries are up shit creek without a paddle. Whatever work was done to advance their complaint has evaporated. In the case of the notoriously indolent Verner however, if her riding and Parliamentary staff followed her example, there probably wasn't much to lose.

(Google translation) More than a month after their election, members of the New Democratic Party are struggling to explain why those they have defeated them did not bother to transfer important files from their constituency.

The current MP for Louis-Saint-Laurent, Alexandrine Latendresse visited the constituency office of former Minister Josee Verner few days after her victory May 2, but ran into closed doors.

When she took possession of House of Commons furniture that had been assigned to Verner, it had been emptied of files and records for the riding's residents.

"There are citizens who have contacted me to tell me they had current cases, so we must start from scratch. It's deplorable that nobody monitors these actions. Riding residents are the losers in this situation," Ms. Latendresse.

Stevie Spiteful trained his Cons well.

When the bully plays the *victim card*.

We're talking about the Contempt Party whose specialty, during the last 5 years, has been prevarication upon prevarication. It has even convinced its base supporters that there was no contempt, only charges made up by the Opposition in Parliament.

The *victim card* is what Karla Homolka played, when the police didn't yet have the solid evidence they needed to demonstrate that she was not only an accomplice in Bernardo's crimes, but may have actually initiated some of the more repulsive violent crimes committed by the couple.

Birds of a feather. Opportunists. Cons and con jobs.

And thus this latest unsurprising revelation about the shallowness of their so-called "Tough on Crime" posturing.

Four years ago, to great fanfare, the federal Conservatives opened an ombudsman’s office to help victims of crime. [...] To date, the Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime has released only one annual report. Two others were filed to the federal justice minister but, for more than a year, they have remained secret. [...]

The missing reports, from 2008 and 2009, would have been made public earlier this month — to coincide with the sixth annual national victims of crime awareness week — but the “coalition forced an unnecessary election and shut down Parliament,” said Geneviève Breton, the justice minister’s spokesperson.

“My sense is they created the office because it made a good press release,” said Steve Sullivan, whose federal appointment to a three-year term as ombudsman ended last April. [...]

“They use the word victim a lot but it’s done to support or justify the get-tough-on-crime agenda, which really doesn’t do a whole lot for most victims of crime,” said Sullivan, who is now executive director of Ottawa Victim Services, a community-based agency that works primarily with women who have been abused by their partners. [...]

The word “victim” appears 40 times throughout the Conservative party platform.

Contempt party opportunists. Cons and con jobs.

Jason *Easy Access* Kenney (update)

At the start of the election campaign, DAMMIT JANET! started a meme about Con candidates. Remember this one, where we questioned Parm Gill's claims about processing visas and immigration applications? It's particulary relevant, given some applicants move quickly through the system while others are plagued by incomprehensible delays.

Well that issue has come back to bite MinJKenney on his big white ass.

We've also cast a critical eye on Kenney, notably for the religious ideological dogwhistle that keeps blowing in his vicinity.

And while we're on the topic of catholic fundamentalism, here's a story about Gay ... err, happy Paree and French RWNJ (right wing nut jobs) that'll bring a twinkle to your eye.

Close to the Pompidou Centre and just across from Saint-Merri church, a stylish and discreet "Love shop" could go unnoticed. But it provokes some Catholics who have decided to go to court to remove its sex toys from the neighbourhood.

Founded in 2004 [...] the Paris and Marseille-based stores offer accessories to "spice up your sex life, feed your fantasies and explore new sensations in a friendly, sexy and delicious way." Led primarily by women, the shops are designed so that one can enter without embarrassment [...].

The National Confederation of Catholic Family Associations (CNAFC) and the association Love and Family have filed complaints against the company in court because the shop is located 90 meters from the Saint-Merri elementary school.

Full Google translation here.

If Contempt party leader SHithead and his Cons get the majority he demands, you can expect catholic zealots will lobby MinJKenney to shut down small businesses such as the one belonging to the married couple who created We-Vibe and successfully marketed it around the world.

Update: No response yet from Auditor General (it's not clear she is the appropriate Parliamentary authority to accept the charge) regarding Ruby Dhalla's public request.

Un grand merci to impolitical who first posted the Mesley interview at her blog.

Contempt leader is a Cylon.

Today's blogpost at Trashy's World tugged at memory strings.

Something about the 2008 election ... Aha! Here it is!

Slightly dated, though the essential message remains the same.

Did Con candidate lobby for Lockheed Martin?

Radio-Canada and The Toronto Star report the Con candidate running in Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing is still employed by CFN Consultants, a company that lobbied the Harper Regime on behalf of Lockheed Martin. Lobbyists from CFN Consultants represent a large number of manufacturers of military equipment.

It was Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s party that initially cracked down on the cozy relationship between federal politicians and lobbyists. When first elected, the Tories legislated a five-year ban on lobbying by former politicians and political staffers.

The Harper Regime was *negociating* with U.S. company Lockheed Martin for the purchase of 65 stealth fighters F-35 Lightning II. It estimated the total cost of ownership, maintenance and updating of equipment to be $16 billion.

But Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page presented information that the cost could actually exceed $29 billion because of many uncertainties. The Opposition also questioned the veracity of industrial benefits that will be generated by the project, valued to be worth $12 billion by Industry Canada, though this claim cannot be substantiated.

*La bouche en cul de poule*

"Chicken butt mouth" is the loose translation for a term which means, en français, the grimace made by someone pinching their lips. This explains the hideous face depicted above.

Stevie Spiteful wears it well, don't you think?

Remember Nafta-gate?

James Fitz-Morris thinks Hillary sure does.

(A little refresher by way of Ian Brodie's -- Harpie's first of a long string of chiefs of staff -- wiki entry.)

And speaking of security and confidentiality, let's also remember those ReformaTory cabinet ministers who are to be trusted with sensitive information, whereas those evul Taliban-supporting Opposition MPs are not.

Here's Helena Guergis trying to score political points while endangering Opposition members' lives in Afghanistan.

Here's Maxime Bernier forgetting senstive NATO documents at his mobbed-up biker chick's pad.

And here's Lisa -- I'm So Sexy -- Raitt blaming her aide for leaving more sensitive documents in the ladies' loo.

Hillary Clinton remembers Nafta-gate, but will Canadian voters remember these incompetents when the time comes to vote their butts out?

Here at DJ!, we live in hope.