Wow! There's (some) sanity at BTs!

Wow. They are NOT all retards at Blogging Tories. Rightchik gets it -- at least on this subject.

What is it with Conservatives? Why are so many of them obsessed with the sex lives of others?

She details the ReformaTories' idiocies on gay marriage, abortion, contraception, sex ed, and prostitution.

On contraception, she says:

Remember the third world maternal health program? Remember when it was first announced that contraception would not be included? Remember the reaction?

Stephen Harper looked like a schmuck and Conservatives looked like ignorant, self righteous prigs.

She concludes:

Conservatives need to have more sex.

Ewwww, much as that thought leaves icky streaks in my brain, she's probably right. It might improve their outlook.

Go leave her an encouraging comment. I did.

Lawless Government

I can't run video at my place, so I've been reading about this for a week without being able to see it.

It's excellent and I love the music.

DJ! Gets into That Juxtaposing Thingy

Experts good.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews explained the costs were a result of an “unprecedented event” with two back-to-back summits.

“And we believe the experts when they say this is the necessary level of security. I understand that the Liberals don’t believe in securing Canadians or the visitors here. We are different,” Mr. Toews said.

Experts bad.

The Harper government turned its back on advice from its own civil servants when it excluded abortion funding in its G8 maternal- and child-health initiative, The Canadian Press has learned.

Briefing notes prepared in January by the Canadian International Development Agency for International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda suggest access to safe abortion services could save numerous lives in developing countries.

ADDED: Really bad elite experts.

The Conservative government, having ignored advice from public servants that abortion was an essential component of an effective maternal-health initiative, now appears to be turning its back on similar advice from the elite national scientific academies of all G8 countries.

The Royal Society of Canada as well as the national academies of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia issued a joint statement late Tuesday.

It is a unanimous call to G8 leaders to ensure that access to contraception and “measures to reduce unsafe abortion” are part of a richer, more focused and more coordinated maternal and child health initiative in June.

. . .

But Bev Oda, Canada’s international aid minister, who said “I used to be an English teacher,” read it differently.

She said the statement recommends family planning services and adequate treatment of the complications that result from abortion, but does not recommend measures for the provision of safer abortions.

Keee-rist these people are braindead.

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.

ReformaTory Minister Lectures Haiti about transparence and accountability.

Un-frakking-believable.

Larry "Loose" Cannon deigned to patronize Haiti and other countries within hearing of his droning sanctimonious little lecture about transparence and accountability.

Rule of law will be the key to rebuilding an earthquake-devastated Haiti, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told an international donors conference Tuesday. "While Haiti has been weakened, it is not stateless," Cannon told the meeting of more than 100 countries at the UN headquarters in New York. "Strengthening governance and rule-of-law institutions, as well as facilitating decentralization, will be critical elements of a holistic and comprehensive reconstruction plan."

Cannon did not say in his remarks how much Canada will donate to earthquake reconstruction, pledging to make an announcement later.

Well, that explains why none of the money pledged by thousands of citizens, in support of infrastructure reconstruction, held in trust by Harper's Government (the condition for securing CIDA matching funds) has been given to Haitian organizations. Those of us who donated to the Red Cross and Médecins sans frontières provided swift humanitarian and medical support.

What's your next lecture, Larry? The legal obligations of governing parties to respect and uphold Parliamentary procedures?

While we're on the topic of Con Speaking Points, who knew that Canadian senators are now receiving them from Mark Steyn? It appears that a squad of ReformaTory Attack Parrots™© cloaked themselves in self-righteousness, in defense of US stand-up performer Ann Coulter's right to flout our laws regarding hate speech - and comparing her plight to that of the behaviour-challenged Guy Earle. Go read Dr Dawg to get accurate facts - which would be those that Harper's bullies distorted in the Upper Chamber.

Catch 22

This is a great idea -- Catch 22 Harper Conservatives.

From the brand-spanky-new website:

Had enough of the Conservatives, their political gamesmanship and abuse of power? We've seen this government side-step Parliament through prorogation, committee boycotts and stonewalling. We've witnessed unprecedented secrecy, limits on media access, brinkmanship, and outright untruths. Without real consequences for these abuses, why should we expect any change from our politicians?

The grassroots organizers have been working on this for a while, analyzing voting records to come up with 22 vulnerable ReformaTory seats.

Go to the site and see if your MP -- or one near you -- is on the list and find out how you can help.

Spread the word.

Ooopsie!

Gender-neutral language from ReformaTories? Not so much.

Don Martin on the shiny bright thing anthem change:

It has infuriated the Conservative base and captivated all political water cooler conversation, dwarfing debate about the Throne Speech and federal budget. If this was intended as a bad-news diversion, it worked so well the government may well need to unleash a diversion to this diversion.

Sensing it had a major oopsie on its hands, the government had reacted almost immediately.

Barely an hour after the Throne Speech was delivered, an MP ‘talking point' was rushed out from the PMO insisting the government was "not taking a position. We are simply suggesting that a parliamentary committee examine the subject and report back to Parliament."

That's politic-speak for backpedalling, if not running, away from an ugly mess.

Some rank this as one of Harper's top four biggest mistakes, right up there with gratuitous arts funding cuts which infuriated the key battleground of Quebec on the eve of the 2008 election, the political financing elimination which created the opposition coalition and the February prorogation move which whacked the Conservatives down in the polls.

That seems a bit too much significance for a word change, but keep in mind Quebec pundits say the $15-million arts funding reduction cost Harper his shot at a majority in 2008.

But for a government to propose an anthem alteration just (ital) three days (end) after Canada's patriotic tidal wave crested at the Vancouver Winter Olympics suggests Harper's tone-deafness to the average voter has become a pattern.

True, the scope of the reaction caught many by surprise -- and you can count me among them. But the timing could not have been worse and the Prime Minister clearly needs someone in an office filled with sycophants to grab his collar and shake these sorts of bad ideas out of his head.

Or as a commenter at Facebook said: 'Shiny bright thing blow up.'