Shorter Paul Wells: Hey, I just realized that the Conservatives are like, really big liars.

Remember how the right whingers were all high fiving each other when PMS bellowed at China? Well just as predicted, this graceless move has had the opposite effect.

PM Stephan Harper’s high profile criticism of China’s handling of the Huseyin Celil case during APEC meeting last year has virtually pushed Celil to jail, according to NDP MP Wayne Marston.

Marston is the MP for the riding in which Celil’s family lives. He was among the first to mobilize effort to rescue Celil soon after his arrest. He had partnered up with a few diplomatic experts and were prepared to lobby the Chinese government from behind the scene.

Marston said this method had proved effective when dealing with the Chinese government. China is more willing to cooperate if the lobbying is done behind the scene, Marston told a Ming Pao reporter.

However, Harper suddenly made a high profile criticism against China, its human rights records and the Celil case before the APEC meeting last year. When Marston heard the prime minister in the media, he was stunned and knew it would be much difficult to get Celil released back to Canada.

Marston said Harper’s way of handling the case blocked off any hope of communication between China and Canada.

So PMS‘ political gamesmanship is likely to result in a lengthy term of incarceration in a Chinese prison for Celil…not that the conservatives actually care.

Via Calgary Grit I see that Alberta’s 2007 budget has brought in a whopping 17% increase in spending. Wow! The right whingers must be out of their minds with rage over that. Hahahahaha! Yeah right. If the seven previous Alberta budgets where Klein spent like a drunken sailor couldn’t generate any outrage from them or shake they belief in the mythical fiscal conservativism it’s not like this will either. But at least their silence exposes them for the frauds they truly are.

I see John Baird has all the rubes worked into a high state of dudgeon because he claims that if Canada tries to meet its Kyoto targets 275,000 Canadians might lose their jobs.

Well if that’s the case I wonder what state they’re in knowing that Canada’s manufacturing sector has shed 250,000 jobs over the past 5 years. What’s that? They aren’t concerned about those lost jobs.

“On March 28, along with the leaders of Canada’s largest private sector unions, I met with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Labour about the fact that since November 2002, Canadians have suffered a net loss of over 250,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector. They acknowledged that they see the same numbers that we see but they did not see them as a crisis.”

So for the record, the Conservative position on job losses is:
275,000 hypothetical lost jobs = economic armageddon.
250,000 actual lost jobs = stop your bitchin.

DeSmogBlog may have found the dumbest person on the planet.

As you know, Daylight Saving Time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate.

Another fine product churned out by the American edumahcation system and Faux News.

As I said previously, the purchase of 100 Leopard 2 tanks is a monumental waste of money. The best summation of this idiotic purchase however, comes from Red Tory.

This move is a somewhat puzzling u-turn from the previous government’s policy of phasing out heavy tracked vehicles like the Leopard in favour of lighter, faster, more fuel-efficient wheeled vehicles such as the 22-ton Light Armoured Vehicle IIIs or similar air-portable armoured vehicles. Last night, I asked a friend who’s a student of military matters what he thought of the Leopard tank. His response: “It’s a great tank! For fighting the Russians on the North German plain.” He then went on to describe the shortcomings of the Leopard’s 120 mm smooth bore cannon and the high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) munitions employed that in his opinion were “useless” against infantry targets and “highly ineffective” against mud-brick emplacements.

The Leopard 2 is primarily an anti-tank tank and the last time I checked, the Taliban didn’t have any tanks.

For a decent summary of the Leopard 2’s capabilities, watch this 9 minute video on YouTube. You’ll see that this tank is a waste of taxpayer dollars that will not help us in Afghanistan and once we’re out of Afghanistan will only become a $650 million rusted monument to the outdated cold war thinking that still holds sway over our military.

Poor Betty May. Apparently mean old Jack won’t return her calls and she, along with many of the libfloggers, are howling with outrage about how Layton and the NDP put partisanship above doing what’s right for the nation. Well let me remind all the libfloggers how Betty May and Steve Dion reacted the last time Jack Layton and the NDP set aside their partisanship to get something done for the good of Canada.

March 22, 2007 – Green party leader Elisabeth May says “Bill C-30 – the so-called Clean Air Act – was dead on arrival at its first reading last year. . . Ongoing attempts to breathe life into the corpse are a waste of time . . . It’s time for MPs to bring down the curtain on the C-30 sideshow and get to work on climate change strategies that will drive progress towards the Kyoto targets.” (Green Party Press Release)

December 20, 2006 – Newly elected Liberal leader Stephane Dion says “Mr. Layton decided to play the game . . . I told him, at this stage I will play the game, too. (But) I will denounce it; I will denounce it at the same time . . . If I’m able to become the prime minister next spring, I will not continue this fake gesture.” (Toronto Star)

If this is Steve and Betty’s idea of setting aside their partisanship to get something done it’s no wonder Jack won’t return their calls.

I see the shameless media whores are once again licking up the latest slop from the Fraser Drunkstitute.

The average Canadian family spends more money on taxes than on necessities of life such as food, clothing, and housing, according to a study from The Fraser Institute, an independent research organization with offices across Canada.

While debunking Fraser Drunkstitute slop is like shooting fish in a barrel, I have a few minutes to kill and a few minutes is all that’s required to debunk their latest pile of offal.

You might notice the the Fraser Drunkstitute has a very narrow list of what are considered the necessities of life. I don’t know about any of you, but healthcare is also something I consider a necessity of life. And healthcare is something that our taxes pay for.

I also consider roads a necessity of life. While hiking throught the woods might be an enjoyable hobby, I certainly wouldn’t want to be carting my groceries home through the bush every week. Roads too are paid for by our tax dollars.

And then of course there are the services paid for by our taxes such as police protection and fire fighting that also classify as necessities to everyone who doesn’t own their own pumper truck.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to necessary services that we, the Canadian people, have decided we want our government to provide for us. And since nothing in life is free, it’s quite obvious to anyone with more than two functioning brain cells that the percentage of our income going to taxes would rise in tandem with the number of additional services we’ve requested; services, I might add, that are necessities of modern day life despite what the Fraser Drunkstitute believes.

Everything you always wanted to know about Mixed Member Proportion but the media was afraid to tell you.

Here’s the heart of what passes for conservative foreign policy: More killing and less talking.

Up to 19 more Canadian diplomatic offices could be closing their doors, as the Conservative government continues belt-tightening at the Foreign Affairs Department.

Sources say missions in Cambodia, Latvia and the Balkan states are among those being considered for the chopping block, as well as a number of small consulates in Africa. Late last year, the government closed two consulates in Japan, one in St. Petersburg and another in Milan to save money.

Obviously PMS is out of synch with the rest of the world. Whereas the overwhelming majority of people on this planet want to see differences between nations worked out diplomatically, the regressive conservatives are working to once again make warfare a primary means of settling disputes.

…are doomed to repeat it.

The Soviet Union had state of the art tanks in Afghanistan and that got them nowhere. The US has state of the art tanks in Iraq and that is getting them nowhere. So who in their right mind would believe that a handful of Leopard II tanks are going to be of any use to the Canadian military in Afghanistan today?

The tank is a cold war relic that is only useful in conventional warfare. It is valueless when it comes to fighting a guerilla war as the Soviet Union, the US, Israel and every other nation involved in fighting against one can all attest. This purchase is a shameful waste of taxpayer’s money that will do nothing more than give the warmongers a woody.

So May and Dion have a plan. Well I have a better plan that doesn’t involve rigging an election.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007
About that spring offensive…

Weren’t we supposed to be losing a bunch of soldiers by now?

Ah, right. We must’ve appeased their asses into the ground.

Labels: Afghanistan, security, war on terror

posted by Jarrett @ 11:06 AM

The latest SES numbers.

CP: 36%
LP: 33%
NDP: 16%
BQ: 10%
GP: 6%

Via Pogge I see that the British sailors being held by the Iranian government have been released and it was done without murdering innocent Iranians as the deranged lunatics on the right were advocating.

We’ve all seen how the taxpayer funded Government of Canada website has become overtly partisan ever since the Conservatives took office a year ago. Well now the Conservative government is redefining Government of Canada news to include partisan attacks against the Liberals.

Click on image to enlarge.

The yellow circle highlights an area on Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s website titled “Government Of Canada News Updates”. There is also this page on his site which clearly states “Government News by Conservative.ca”. Below both however, are links to articles that are clearly nothing more than partisan attacks against the Liberals such as this one titled “Dion sends Liberal MPs on cross-country whine tour”.

Partisan attacks on another party are not Government of Canada news and for Flaherty to sell it as such is not only dishonest but an unethical use of Government of Canada resources and intellectual property.

Update: Accidental Deliberations points out that Flaherty’s unethical mislabeling of party press releases as Government of Canada news may also be illegal.

The results are in for the first annual Blogging Dippers elections and the people have spoken selecting Devin Johnstone, Ravi Joshi and Paladiea as the new administrators. Congratulations to all three candidates and I look forward to their leadership that will usher in a new era of blogging by the people, of the people and for the people.

Via CTV Politics Blog is an interesting video shot by a liberal blogger who attended Conservative MP Ron Cannon’s socalled Open House. Next time Scott Ross does this he should take a lawyer with him.