Well, that didn’t take long.
Helen Thomas, doyenne of the White House Press Corps, ends her long career in ignominy.
After telling the Jews to go back to Poland and Germany and a non apology apology, Ms Thomas retired today(Monday).
She was also dropped by her public speaking agency and her appearance as keynote speaker at a high school commencement was cancelled.
Too bad. So sad. NOT. Ms Thomas was decades past her expiration date.
It’s fascinating that a person i’ve never heard of before has hit the news big twice in as many weeks.
First she was apparent mastermind behind the stupidity of making the anthem gender neutral and she’s been quoted as telling abortion groups to shut the fuck up or Darth Harper will come and make things much worse.
During the question and answer period, Ruth advised those in the room that pushing the abortion issue was not the right strategy if they really wanted progress on the maternal health issue. Her comments were caught on tape by the Toronto Star.
“We’ve got five weeks or whatever left until the G8 starts. Shut the f–k up on this issue,” she said. “If you push it, there’ll be more backlash. This is now a political football. This is not about women’s health in this country.”
She went on to say, “Canada is still a country with free and accessible abortion. Leave it there. Don’t make this an election issue.”
And, without missing a beat, of course, the Opposition was all over the government in question period. Apparently, according to once loser NDP premier now old, aging, and out of touch Liberal MP Bob Rae it’s all part of the “culture of intimidation” that Darth Harper has encouraged.
Unfortunately for the Toronto Star which publicized the quote and for the opposition context is everything. According to audience members who were actually there rather than a biased reporter looking for a comment to make the Tories look bad, Ms Ruth had been, surprise, surprise, quoted out of context.
Will the opposition apologize? It is to laugh. Maybe when hell freezes over. If then.
Well, well, well. It’s not often that I’m wrong 
but you could have knocked me over with a feather this morning when I heard that they had caught the low life who tried to car bomb Times Square (allegedly, as they say).
I almost felt sorry for the pond scum when I read that he had been arrested as his plane was pulling away from the terminal. He must have thought that he had gotten away with it. Too bad, so sad. NOT.
I was positive, absolutely positive, that the bomb, despite being near South Park’s Viacom(cowards all there), was the work of one the wacko right wing militias in the states. Why? Because the bomb was so amateurish. I simply didn’t think that anyone trained by Islamofascists would be so stupid.
I thought that the guy caught on videotape, described as ‘white’ in newspaper reports, was probably some dude in the wrong place at the wrong time. And as for his stripping off his clothes? Well, I’ve seen a lot of stranger things happen in Times Square believe you me.
But I was wrong. It turns out that the dude was a naturalized American citizen hailing from Rugriderville. He says he acted alone. Riiiiiiiiiiight. If you believe that I have bridge for sale that you want to take a look at.
It will be interesting to see how this incident gets spun over the next while. How much of a spotlight will be turned on America’s muslim community and the fundamentalist cancer breeding within it? My guess? Not much. The MSM will do its utmost to look anywhere else but there.
Wow.
If you look at the National News Watch site, it pretty much the Rahim Jaffer & Helena Geurgis show. The pundits, “journalists,” and politicians seemingly can talk of nothing else.
I am reminded of being in the States at the height of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky Great Blow Job Scandal. It was appalling. It was everywhere. It completely dominated what were supposed to be news casts but instead were turned into platforms for talking heads to bloviate.
It was pathetic then. It’s pathetic now.
Enough is enough already. Leave ‘em the fuck alone. Hell, when even political attack dog Warren Kinsella says this is too much you know things have gone too far.
This feeding frenzy just makes everyone look bad. I wonder if this is how the Roman mob acted with gladiators in the arena? The scent of blood is in the water.
I suppose the fascination is akin to slowing down when passing a traffic accident… everyone thinks “There, but for the grace of god, go I.” And we have so few real scandals(ie those involving sex) so when one comes along, I guess the feeling is that’s its news and has got to be covered.
About the only thing I find interesting in the matter is the conduct of our Dear Leader, aka Darth Harper. I give him full credit for his handling of the situation. The allegations(and that’s all they are right now) came to light last Thursday night and by Friday morning, not only was Ms Geurgis gone from cabinet, she was gone from caucus.
The motto of my blog is “Partis Liberale delenda est.” In English that means the Liberal Party must be destroyed. For the longest time this dream of mine has been more a case of wish fulfillment than reality but if the Liberals keep going the way they’re going, my motto might come unexpectedly true.
I haven’t blogged about the Liberal’s week from hell this last week but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t enjoyed every jot and tittle of. I kept abreast of every little twist and turn, read all the pundits’ scathing opinions, and loved to watch the Liberals apologists squirm on national TV.
I’ve been debating what to call this post. “Send in the clowns,” “the gang that couldn’t shoot straight,” “the gong show,” and “amateur hour” all come mind and would be an appropriate description of the Liberal Party last week.
The thing about it is that it was supposed to happen this way. At this time last weekend the Liberals(via Bob Rae) had crafted what they thought was an extremely clever motion:
That, in the opinion of the House, the government’s G8 maternal and child health initiative for the world’s poorest regions must include the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, including contraception, consistent with the policy of previous Liberal and Conservative governments, and all other G8 governments last year in L’Aquila, Italy;
that the approach of the Government of Canada must be based on scientific evidence, which proves that education and family planning can prevent as many as one in every three maternal deaths; and
that the Canadian government should refrain from advancing the failed right-wing ideologies previously imposed by the George W. Bush administration in the United States, which made humanitarian assistance conditional upon a “global gag rule” that required all non-governmental organizations receiving federal funding to refrain from promoting medically sound family planning
Liberal talking heads fanned out across the country to talk up the motion. If you listened to them the motion was going to fix everything. It was going to save mothers in the third world, expose the Tory “hidden agenda” on abortion. If you listened long enough it seemed that the motion was going to everything but cure cancer.
But then reality hit them with the political equivalent of sledge hammer.
In the last few months Canadians have two good examples of parliamentary principles in action.
The first was the prorogation foofaraw. Opposition activists bloviated that the Tories were for overthrowing democracy, acting like dictators, and on and on and on. The Opposition leaders blithered on about disrespecting Parliament. Liberal leader Michael “We Americans” Iffnatieff solomnly proclaimed that when he became Prime Minister that he would never abuse his power.
The pundits, bereft of the distraction of Parliament to write about, piled on the wagon. MSM opinion was almost universally negative: “the Prime Minister has too much power!” they cried. All of a sudden a decades old problem that had been obvious to anyone with a half a brain was new again.
As I pointed out at the time, though, that if the Opposition thought that there really was a point of principle involved they could vote non confidence in the government when Parliament resumed.
Of course, when Parliament actually resumed the progrogation protests were yesterday’s news and barely a peep was heard from the Opposition about the matter.
Indeed, Iffnatieff thought Parliament was so important that after only eight sittings, he abandoned the place for a cross country tour.
The headline “Iganatieff prorogues himself’ pretty much writes itself.
I could not believe how stupid he was to take such a trip at such a time. The optics were horrible. If consultations with Canadians were so damned important he had over two full months in which to undertake them. But noooo, he has to wait til Parliament is back in session.
It would seem that the amateur hour known as the Liberal Party of Toronto will still be with us for a while yet.
Then there is the second issue of principle: the right of the House of Commons to hold the government to account.
Now for political junkies this is like crack cocaine. After all what is more important that the rights of Parliament?
Civil wars have been fought over this issue. A King lost his head over this issue.
More on this in Part II
Well, that was a quick a political flip flop as I’ve ever seen in politics.
The federal government, which sparked controversy after suggesting it might make changes to the lyrics of O Canada, has decided to leave the national anthem alone.
“We offered to hear from Canadians on this issue and they have already spoken loud and clear. They overwhelmingly do not want to open the issue,” said Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office. “The government will not proceed any further to change our national anthem.”
The government couldn’t have gotten out the announcement that there will be no changes made to the lyrics of the anthem after all any faster than they did.
Talk about democracy in action. No sooner did the proposal see the light of day than the people let the politicians know in no uncertain terms what they thought of idea. I think the kindest words about the change were “political correctness run amok.”
the most trenchant column from the punditocracy was Don Martin’s “Tories backpedal on anthem change.” This is off topic but I can’t help but wonder who’s been pissing in Mr. Martin’s corn flakes this last little while. He’s been having more than few hissy fits about the Tories lately.
According to Mr Martin the initiative to change the lyrics came straight from the Dark Lord himself.
Insiders who have polled the Conservative caucus found more than nine out of ten MPs were opposed to any anthem change.
It 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 may have worked too well.
Sensing it had a major mistake on its hands, the government 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, which yesterday became a full-on sprint.
I can’t help but wonder though about which “base” Mr. Martin is thinking of. Was he thinking of the Tories who were, with the notable exceptions of Mr. Harper and Ms Ruth, against the plan or the 95%+ of Canadians who voiced their disapproval?
So I guess all the feminists who can’t bear to sing the word “sons” will just have to take one for the team this time around.
Speaking of the people, here are some people singing O Canada at Canada’s national game:
RATS! Foiled again! Harper’s attempted coup d’état has failed miserably.
Parliament has returned triumphant!
God is in his heaven and all is well in the world!
All is well, except for the Liberals. In their view as long as they are denied their god given right to rule this country, then things are very, very bad indeed. Those dastardly Tories might actually try and appoint Tories to positions that should only be held by Liberals.
So let the Parliamentary games begin. I can hardly wait. NOT. The return of Parliament will just mean more breathless stories of the latest scandal du jour, the ‘will there be an election soon”; Harper devious. Ignatieff smart. We all know the drill.
It’s already started. Harper bad. Liberals crazy(;) Like we need a newspaper to tell us the obvious!). Out for Tory Blood. Budget derailed!?!
Wake me up when the election comes.
Update: John Baglow, aka Dr. Dawg, writes that one sign seen at the Winnepeg Harper hatefest, “Harper=Hitler“, has been unmasked as a Conservative plant!
Le gasp!
If true, that sucks ass and not in a good way. Aside from being really, really stupid, it is also totally unnecessary as leftards can usually be counted on shoot themselves in the foot without any outside help.
In Dr. Dawg’s universe a sample of one means that every other anti-Harper sign seen across Canada must be the result of a plot. It’s a conspiracy, I tells ya! A conspiracy! Why I bet the agents provocateurs below(they must be really stupid ones, though, because they showed their faces) must have got their marching orders directly from the Dark Lord, Adolph Harper himself. After all “progressive bloggers” would never even think of comparing the Prime Minister to Adolph Hiter now, would they?
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Oooh. On the 4th anniversary of his ascension to power , I see there were some “successful” “I hate Stephen Harper” hatefests yesterday across the country.
Ostensibly the pretext for the hatefests was the PM’s decision to prorogue Parliament.
“Rallies for democracy” blogged some. Gee, methinks you take yourself way too seriously. Stop blogging in your parents’ basement and get a life. Seriously, I mean it. Go out and get a life.
There’s been no coup. We still have elections(even unneccesary ones a la Chretien in 2000). Parliament will resume in March. Parliaments and legislatures will be continue to be prorogued(even by the NDP! There’s nothing like the smell of hypocrasy in the morning, is there?)
And like I said when this stupid farce began with the all the bleating of the usual suspects in the Toronto intelligensia and Liberal blogosphere, if this issue is so damned important, if this issue is one of real, actual principal(rofl: the Liberals wouldn’t know a principal if it came up and hit them in the face), then the solution is crystal clear. Vote non confidence in the government at the first opportunity. Grow yourself a pair and take it to the people.
But that isn’t going to happen, is it?
Wake me up when Parliament resumes.
Wow. Michael “We Americans” Igantieff comes every so close to making an intelligent statement/sound bite.
Commenting on today’s shuffle, the Liberal Leader described the Prime Minister as control freak.
“It’s always the same team,” Mr. Ignatieff said as he met with reporters on the first day of his two-day winter caucus retreat. “The puppets are always there, and they just change the little puppets, but the great leader is still there. (BB: Emphasis mine)
“It’s a government unusually dominated by one figure, the Prime Minister. … The key point is that this is a government run by one man, who cancelled Parliament, who prorogued Parliament. It bears the stamp of his political character.”
So close Iffy, but no cigar. But I do give you a pat on the back for trying to say something intelligible. You need a better speach writer but I will say that if you keep this up, Canadians might actually start listening to you.
And my feelings on the shuffle? Meh. It’s hard to get excited about anything Harper does to his cabinet because it so clearly a one man show – Harper’s – and has been since Day One. It would be real nice to return to the days when a cabinet position actually meant something.
In the meantime it is sort of intereting to read the tea leaves about whois in and who is out. Stockwell Day has become a giant admist the rest of cabinet pygmies. I’m quite impressed. He’s done very well in all of his portfolios. Here’s hoping that Treasury Board isn’t a poisoned chalice.
As to the rest, read Tim Powers for an excellent summary.
Oh noes… more polls are released and they all show the Tories and the Grits neck and neck. The sky is falling! The sky is falling. Jane Taber says that the “Conservatives on ‘razor’s edge of losing government” Whatever shall we do?
Well, the first thing that we can do is dial the hysteria waaaaaaaaaay back. Polls go up; polls go down. Late last year the Tories and Grits were neck and neck too. Then Michael “We Americans” Ifnatieff opened his big mouth and the things changed over night. All of a sudden the Tories were way up and the Grits were way down.
Tomorrow or next week, the polls will be different.
Nevertheless the polls ARE interesting when taken together.
If I were in the Tory war room, I’d be concerned. The polls confirm that despite all the talk about ‘tipping points’ and the Tories becoming the Natural Governing Party(I’ve done my share on this), that beyond the core base the Tory vote is very shallow. All that it takes for voters to run back to the Liberals is for the government and PM Harper to do something that plays into his image of hyper partisanship and dictatorial tendencies.
The prorogation of Parliament and the near unanimous roar against it on the party of the Liberals, the Toronto intelligentsia, and the punditocracy played into the public’s feelings about Stephen Harper.
The fickleness of voters therefore is something the Tories need to be aware of(if they’re not aware already).
On the other hand, the Tories remain firmly ensconced in power. Even the shenanigans over prorogation hasn’t changed the fact that the Liberals are not going to force an election anytime soon regardless of the perceived provocation(that’s assuming(a very big if) that the Bloc and the NDP would be for an election as well.)
So the universe will continue to unfold as it should. There will be the Olympics, the budget, and the G8/G20 meetings. The Tories will have lots of opportunities to move the polls into a more favourable position.
Only one thing is near certain. There will not be an election this spring. or the fall. Maybe next spring. We’ll see.
In the meantime everyone can go back to sleep until the new parliamentary session in March.
I hate slow news cycles. I really wish that reporters would go back to reporting on things that matter. Like maybe the ongoing disintegration of the Conservative dynasty in Alberta.
“Grassroots fury greets shuttered Parliament” writes the Toronto Star.
“Canadians are rising up” blogs Liberal Video Depot
“Stephen Harper and our Invisible Democracy” blogs scary Montreal Simon
“outrage at Harper’s prorogue of Parliament.” blogs Scott’s Diatribes
“Why January 23 is perfect for anti-prorogation rallies” blogs My Can of Contemplation
“Tyrants are as tyrants do” at If Neccessary Blogging..
“Smug” blogs Far and Wide
“A Message from the Political Wilderness” at Canadian Cynic
“Going ‘rogue’ ” blogs John Baglow
It’s pretty much the same crap repeated over and over again at the Liberals Online and Progressive Bloggers
So I’ll say this again, slowly this time so that even leftist maroons can understand. Rather than waste your energy protesting, voice your opinions to your respective parties, tell them to grow a pair and when Parliament reconvenes move non confidence and take the issue to the ultimate arbiters, the people.
The sun will sooner rise in the west before that happens but the Harper haters should keep trying.
