Shooting the messenger ... blood on their hands

CNN : WikiLeaks founder may have 'blood' on his hands
Reuters : WikiLeaks may have blood on its hands, U.S. says
Both sources quote Admiral Mike Mullen :

"Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing," Mullen said. "But the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family."

Guardian : The War Logs :

"...the marines opening fire with automatic weapons as they tore down a six-mile stretch of highway, hitting almost anyone in their way – teenage girls in fields, motorists in their cars, old men as they walked along the road. Nineteen unarmed civilians were killed and 50 wounded."

Two hours later they returned to confiscate camera evidence.
A news photographer said they told him : "Delete them, or we will delete you."
A US army colonel paid $2,000 to the families of each victim and Major General Francis Kearney ordered the marines to pull the entire 120-man company out of the country.

Washington Post reader Q&A with Assange :

"Did you take steps to delete the names and other identifying information of informants before you released the 90,000+ documents? If not, how do you answer the charge that your actions may get these informants killed?"

Assange :

"We released 36,000 out of the 92,000 or so documents in the Afghan War Diaries.
15,000 have been held for further review because they may contain information about innocents or informants. We also asked the White House to provide resources to help us vet the materials; the White House did not respond."

Yesterday Obama signed the new Afganistan troop surge bill, passed by both Democrats and Republicans.

Last month, after accusing Stephen Harper of making a decision to “cut and run” from Afghanistan, Michael Ignatieff called for Canadians to stay in Afghanistan after 2011 as police and army trainers.

Harper and Iggy both supported the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and both voted to extend the Afghanistan occupation from 2009 to 2011.
Former human rights advocate Ignatieff is providing Harper and Obama with the cover necessary to support and extend that occupation.

It's down to all of us now to blow that cover : Rethink Afghanistan

G20 : Rapture Outreach Tourism

Kady snagged this pic of the Inscribe the Bible.ca bus on Friday. It was parked outside Charles McVety's Canada Christian College for the Karl Rove mini-G20 Faith and Business speech - which was all about giving the US Dems a "whupping" apparently.

.

Inscribe the Bible Canada is sponsored by B'nai Brith Canada and Christians United For Israel, founded by Texas millionaire televangelist Pastor John Hagee. John Hagee Ministries rents office space from McVety at Canada Christian College, and McVety in turn is chair of CUFI Canada. B'nai Brith VP Frank Dimant chairs a department on Israel at McVety's college, and his appointment to that position was attended by Jason Kenney.

McVety, Hagee, and Dimant have all shared the podium at CUFI bunfests. End times are cozy times.

Anyway back to that bus and Inscribe the Bible.ca.

According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who originally launched the project :

"People of the World Inscribe the Bible" is a project in which anyone can inscribe a verse from the Bible in his native tongue and in his own handwriting.

The project was launched recently in Ottawa, Canada. [December 16, 2008] A day prior to the launching ceremony, Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Harper, inscribed the first verse."

Naturally there is a Canadian website with a bold if confusing graphic at the top :

Inscribe The Bilble informs us that these hand-written bibles from all over the world will eventually be housed in the House of the Bible in the Bible Valley in Israel, where a permanent full scale replica of biblical times with re-enactments of biblical stories and life 2000+ years ago is planned for a 15 mile valley.

Bible Valley :

"The Bible and Peace House will be the jewel in the crown of Bible Valley. The Bible Valley Project intends to develop an area of 25,000 acres adjacent to Jerusalem.

The Bible Valley Project will be composed of several sub-projects.
Foremost will be the handwriting of 100 copies of the Bible in various languages by two million Bible lovers from around the world. This will be done in cooperation with the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Bible House is one of the elements in Bible Valley dedicated to bringing the Bible back to Israeli society and Israeli society back to the Bible."

Bring Israeli society back to the Bible? Develop 25,000 acres adjacent to Jerusalem to look like biblical times? Rapture outreach tourism?

Take it away, Max ...

Next CUFI Show in Washington DC in a month.

Best G20 poster so far

Well done, PMOHarper.

Would make a very good G20 commemorative stamp.

Update : But unfortunately this is the one that will stick.

Steve has had a vision

of Birnam Wood marching on his own personal Dunsinane.

Good.

Israel attacks flotilla bound for Gaza

Hours after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was presented with this Toronto Maple Leafs jersey in Toronto, Israeli commandos dropped from helicopters onto the lead vessel of a six ship international aid flotilla bound for Gaza and opened fire.

Israeli Radio is reporting 16 to 19 killed with 30 injured and confirms the flotilla was in international waters.

According to AFP, "the Israeli military censor ordered a block on all information regarding those injured or killed during the storming of the ship."

The six ships bearing 10,000 tons of supplies and over 600 activists from 40 countries, including 86 year old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, are now being towed to Ashod.

I was watching a Turkish TV live feed from the lead vessel until it went off the air. I couldn't understand what anyone was saying except for a voice shouting in English that they were in international waters and a woman calling for help for the wounded. The live footage is now being rebroadcast at the same link with commentary in English.

But back to the jersey photo op. Netanyahu says Israel has never had a better friend than Canada and thanked Steve today for being "an unwavering friend of Israel."

Too true. Canada was the first country in the world to boycott Gaza for electing Hamas. When Israel bombed Lebanon in 2008 killing 1400, Steve called Israel's actions "measured". A Canadian killed when Israel shelled UN offices went unremarked by our government. We support the Wall at the UN. Peter Kent, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, has more than once stated on his website that "an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada." We have cut off funding to humanitarian groups like Kairos and UNRWA who have been sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, and replaced members on the board of the once independent group Rights and Democracy with pro-Israel hawks. Canada had the largest delegation at last year's Conference on Anti-Semitism in Israel and provides nearly twice the Canadian forces to man the borders of Gaza as does the United States. We have our own McCarthyite Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism and banned George Galloway from Canada. Con MPs have sent out flyers to their constituents suggesting that Liberals are soft on anti-Semitism, the definition of which has now been expanded to include any criticism of Israel, following the lead of our prime minister who has accused MPs of anti-Semitism in the House of Commons. Last month the Ethics Commissioner reported that Israel is the top destination of choice for MPs seeking junkets abroad paid for by outside organizations, and Ontario Premier McGuinty is there now drumming up trade. Two years ago Israel and Canada signed what it pleases Israel's Ministry of Public Security to describe on their website as a pact on "cooperation in home land security and counter terrorism issues."

BFF

Against this complicity by our own government in the three-year-old Israeli blockade of Gaza, we must raise our voices in support of international law. We must no longer allow our government to speak in our name here.

Witness Gaza. Witness. Gaza.

Guy Laliberté for Prime Minister ...

... would he stop Stephen Harper's cold, calculating and callous scheme to transform Canada into a third-rate, theocratic version of Margaret Thatcher's Britain?

Fact: The Canada Pavillion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai is among the 10 most popular attractions there.

Cirque du soleil created the concept design for the pavillion and will also create public performances, organize cultural programs and develop strategic corporate alliances for the pavillion. The 6,000-square-meter pavilion, among the biggest at the site, will feature an exhibition themed 'The Living City: inclusive, sustainable, creative.'

Fact: The Conservative Party of Canada is financed by right-wing Christian philanthropists and a web of religious institutions and their believers.

When Harper came to office, he adopted an electoral script crafted by his ideological soulmates in the Republican Party, nurturing a religious-right constituency that had never before enjoyed such attention or access to government. But unlike George W. Bush’s evangelical base, Harper’s theo-conservative constituency is not large enough to guarantee him a clear majority. He cannot win without it, but he cannot win with theo-cons alone.

An essential element of the script followed by theo-conservatives is to annihilate any perceived threat to their goals. The former leader of the LPC and the current one have been subjected to vicious, border-line diffamatory ad campaigns. This appears to have destabilized their effectiveness in the opposition and in Dion's case, distorted the electorate's perception of him as a viable prime minister.


It will take a formidable individual to oppose the drive and the zeal of the CPC supporters. Someone who is a natural leader and an inspiration for team-members, who has already amassed a personal fortune because of sharp business acumen and most of all who can dismiss and deflect personal attacks is required to stand up to Harper.

Stephen Harper declared from the outset of his reign as leader of the Alliance/Reform Party, (which merged with the Progressive Conservatives in order to change its name, though not its tripe) war upon anything and anyone who stood in his road. There are multitudes of quotes - historical and recent - from him that betray his deep contempt for Canadian decency as well as his raw ambition to steer the country to the right.

Marci MacDonald's book - The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada - charts the political tactics of the religious right and its enracinement in the Alliance/Reform party from its inception.

In my humble opinion, it would take Guy Laliberté (or someone like him) to outsmart, to blow raspberries and to laugh outright in the face of Harper and his claque of bullies for their fire-and-brimstone God-the-Father. It would take a juggler, an acrobat and a clown to désamorcer the evil and vile, culture of deceit and authority that passes for governing, under Harper.

The CPC supporters want Armageddon? Their representatives deserve to suffer electoral Armageddon, for the harm they have done to our Canada.

Wheels Within Wheels

As I read Paul Wells' piece in Macleans about Guergis, Bernier and Harper this morning, something clicked.

Bernier has been in the news recently, for a number of reasons: his 'opinon letter' (sic) about greenhouse gases, his declarations about Québec to target audiences and, in a less flattering light, his possible knowledge of events in Afghanistan while he was minister of Foreign Affairs.

By the way, our John Cross wrote a splendid rebuttal to Bernier's pretentious perorations about climate change.

It would be interesting to know who is supporting Bernier's reincarnation as a maverick Tory. Harper is undoubtly trying to uncover that information, particularly as a news item in the NP offers the following: ...

Le Devoir reported that Mr. Bernier has taken to "flaying" Quebec as he travels the country. One columnist has suggested Mr. Bernier should buy a one-way ticket to Alberta. Jean-François Lisée, an influential sovereigntist commentator, delivered the ultimate insult, writing that Mr. Bernier has taken over the late Pierre Trudeau's role as "the Quebecer who speaks badly of Quebec."

Is Bernier being used as misdirection, to divert Harper's attention away from a nascent leadership putsch in the PCP? That would be a devilishly clever tactic. Harper's Achilles heel - the man's irrational vanity - suffered a direct hit when Julie Couillard's book "My Story" spilled the beans about her ex-lover's contempt for the PM.

Do you remember this?

... she added that Mr. Bernier once entertained thoughts of replacing Mr. Harper as the leader of the Conservative Party. Mr. Bernier allegedly sought support in Conservative circles, feeling that he would benefit from the fact that Mr. Harper is anglophone and would need to be replaced by a francophone.

But she also said that Mr. Bernier frequently criticized Mr. Harper's eating habits and the fact that he often drank Pepsi in meetings. The comments were likely made before Mr. Harper went on a diet, but Mr. Bernier apparently made fun of the Prime Minister's belly.

Could Stephen Harper be conned, in the same manner the National Arts Centre audience was played last October?

There are wheels within wheels in the byzantine inner sanctum of the Conservative party.

Everyone Knows The * * * Harper Has Seen.

There's a jazz standard called ' Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen '. Yesterday Canadians were subjected to a most unpleasant variant thereof, by way of Harper's petulant and hissy performance in the House of Commons:

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said earlier this week that his party will not approve the funds unless the Conservatives provide details on precisely how the money will be spent. The Tories say they'll account for the spending after the fact.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested the Liberals are hypocrites for demanding rapid stimulus but then delaying it.

“I hate to use this expression, but the Leader of the Opposition really is engaged, in this entire budgetary business, in the biggest exercise of suck and blow I have ever seen in Canadian history,” Mr. Harper told the House of Commons during Question Period.

Too. Much. Information.

If the Liberals support this budget ....

A really strange thought crept in, ever so quietly.

If Michael Ignatieff directs his caucus to support the budget and to vote with the Conservative minority government, isn't that a recognition Stephen Harper is the best leader the Liberals never had?

On greed, incompetence and conflict of interest.

Linda McQuaig has articulated an opinion about the current economic debacle that is rarely expressed in current analysis about what happened and who is responsible.

Let's imagine, for a moment, how different the public debate would be today if it had been unions that had caused the current economic turmoil. In other words, try to imagine a scenario in which union leaders – not financial managers – were the ones whose reckless behaviour had driven a number of Wall Street firms into bankruptcy and in the process triggered a worldwide recession.

Needless to say, it's hard to imagine a labour leader being appointed to oversee a bailout of unions the way former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson was put in charge of supervising the $700 billion bailout of his former Wall Street colleagues. .... how odd it is that the financial community has emerged so unscathed, despite its central role in the collapse that has brought havoc to the world economy. ...

But so influential are those in the financial elite – and their hangers-on in think-tanks and economics departments – that they continue to appear on our TV screens, confidently providing us with economic advice, as if they'd played no role whatsoever in shaping our economic system for the past quarter century.

Of course, we're told there's been a major change in their thinking, in that many of them are now willing to accept large deficits in today's federal budget, in the name of stimulating the economy..... In fact, financial types have always accepted deficits – when they liked the cause. Hence their lack of protest over George W. Bush's enormous deficits, which were caused by his large tax cuts for the rich and his extravagant foreign wars.

What they don't like is governments going into deficit to help ordinary citizens – either by creating jobs or providing much unemployment relief. .... So the Canadian financial community has been urging that the stimulus package consist mostly of income tax cuts – even though direct government spending would provide much more stimulus and do more to help the neediest.

What they don't like is governments going into deficit to help ordinary citizens – either by creating jobs or providing much unemployment relief.

And if you had any doubts about Stephen Harper's agenda and whether he governs as our Prime Minister, to protect and serve the public interests and not the interests of the privileged, his recent appointment of Sheila Weatherill says it all.

Also - go read Peace, order and good government, eh? now!

Size Queens Anonymous

Michael Ignatieff is a subtle guy, not prone to hyperbole as some of his political adversaries are. In this photograph he is illustrating:

1) the breadth of his love for Bob Rae.
2) the size of Stephen Harper's ... err, ... brain.
3) the amount of bourbon he wants, straight up.
4) ---------------------------------- .

Update: Yesterday, I couldn't think of a title. Today, it seems so obvious.

Tainted Meat Follies, Part XXX

It appears that my tongue-in-cheek blogpost about unions last week pushed a few hot buttons. Check out the hostility explosion in the combox.

Thus I'm pleased to follow up with an encouragement to go read Just Another Willy Loman for his timely blogpost about the recent confrontation between Stevie and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency workers.

The CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) will be voting on a new contract today. The union for the agency whose purpose it is to protect our sources of food, has played a leading role as whistle blower about the Harper government’s secretive deregulation of Canadian safety standards.

Predictably, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz is nowhere to be seen - or heard.

Dr.Dawg adds:

Meanwhile, on the subject of unions, David Reevely of the Ottawa Citizen points to a good summary of the complexity of the bus scheduling issue and the central importance of that issue to striking OC Transpo bus drivers.

Behold the face of the RepubliCons' perfect female.

"She can work 24 hours, no break, no pay and she won't ask for a raise," he says. "That's okay for a home budget." Also perfect for reactionary and retrograde Con ideologues.

Le Trung is an inventor who has been tinkering with robot technology since he was is Grade 3. Last week an article in the Globe and Mail covered his latest creation. Trung foresees that

Project Aiko, .... could lead to humanoid helpers for hospitals, retirement homes and even airports.

Does that not fit in beautifully with Harper RepubliCons' ploy to cancel pay equity for women? Many of the legal challenges regarding pay equity have been launched with respect to job categories, often in those employment areas that require little educational training but demand a lot of dedication, often in difficult and sometimes dangerous working conditions.

Pay equity was abolished from CPC policy at the November convention in Winnipeg. Its removal from government policy was fast-tracked and it became part of Finance Minister Flaherty's disastrous economic update.

Note that while some elements from Flaherty's contentious proposal were removed, the gutting of pay equity has remained on the table.

Stale, canned and indigestible.

Stephen Harper's canned homily earlier this evening was an insult to any Canadian with more than two brain cells to rub together. As my co-blogger pointed out, the pre-recorded statement was riddled with lies and disinformation.

Nobody in the PMO's communications office has yet answered the question why Harper has been using the term separatist when speaking of the Bloc Québecois for his anglophone audience and souverainiste when he speaks French.

He really has made a dog's breakfast* of it, hasn't he?

*no offense intended to Le Dawg. The caricature was published by Le Cornichon when Paul Martin was still the Liberal Leader.

Which way will Harper jump?

Already the lines have been drawn.

George W. Bush:

After presiding over some of the most dramatic market interventions in U.S. history over the past two months, President Bush came to Wall Street on Thursday to urge world leaders not to venture too far down a path of government interference in capitalist economies. Speaking to a conservative audience at historic Federal Hall, Bush sharply criticized proposals for aggressive regulation and control over financial markets while simultaneously defending his administration's broad efforts to support the credit and housing sectors over the past two months.

Nicholas Sarkozy:

European policy makers are hoping to extend financial regulation to more players, from rating agencies to hedge funds. They also want to introduce more transparency into the so-called shadow banking system that has grown up outside the regulatory system, so that balance-sheet black holes at major banks are spotted sooner, rather than later. And they want to give the International Monetary Fund more money and more power as a global financial watchdog, even if might lead to diminishing the clout of Europe and the United States within the IMF to make room for China, India and other big developing nations.

Oh-là. Préparez vos mouchoirs. Will Steve be dumping George?

But, but .... my mother?

It is always instructive to observe what happens to bullies when the chips are down. Some become more aggressive, some hide behind their mother's skirt, some threaten to remove their stuff and stomp off.

Stephen Harper, when the hot soup started boiling over, resorted to childish petulance. When pushed by a reporter on the matter of Canadians' mortgages, their savings, their pensions, Harper retorted that the current economic situation provided "buying opportunities" for some people. Oh yes, ordinary working Canadians - most of whom are not day traders - surely rushed out to take advantage of Harper's stock market advice.

When he was confronted with the evidence of backlash his comments provoked, Stephen enlisted his mother to help him out. Did anyone keep count of how many times he mentioned his mother's name in his public utterances about pensions? Awwww. Isn't it nice to know that his mom can still come to his rescue, even though Harper clearly liked his Dad best?

And now, it's been hinted that Stephen Harper, if denied the majority government he wants and were he to lose a minority mandate, would withdraw from the leadership of the CPC. To do what? Stomp back to Alberta to join the political movement to separate the western provinces from the rest of Canada? If that were the case, it would not surprise me. I've always suspected that Harper's position on a united Canada was strategic and opportunistic.

Admit to it, Stephen: you cooked your own goose. Enjoy your thanksgiving dinner. Many of us are thankful that your famous blue sweater gimmick flopped and that ordinary Canadians were able to hear your unchecked words and to watch your unscripted actions in all its common, ordinary bullying behaviour.

Nuclear family melt down around the oval debate table

This is the second time in as many months that I have watched television. The first time was the subject of this blogpost.

I don't have cable or newspaper subscriptions; I get my news fix from listening to the radio and surfing the internet. I prefer to read articles from a variety of magazines, in French and in English that I mostly buy used or second hand from St Vincent de Paul.

In the last few weeks, I have also read newspapers. There is a federal election happening and I, as a responsible voter, must be watchful and informed.

The problem is, I tend to pay attention to odd things, to focus on the arcane and to draw disparate occurences together in strange mental Venn diagrams. So while I watched the leaders' debate, I felt compelled to take notes, whenever it struck me that I should be taking notes. Here's my perspective on the event that unfolded on Radio-Canada last evening.

The seating plan was peculiar, to say the least. Why were Elizabeth May and Stephen Harper paired off together on one side of the table, across from Jack Layton, Stéphane Dion and Gilles Duceppe? It sent off a weird dysfunctional nuclear family vibe, especially since everybody knew that Daddy and Jack tried to keep Mommy Lizabeth from joining them because it s'posed to be a boys' night but conciliatory Stéphane said she could be there. And so she was, wearing her lucky sculpty choker jewelry.

Bad boys Jack and Gilles held a spontaneous 'Let's dress exactly like Daddy' monochrome mock-in, right down to the diagonally striped blue ties.

An aspiring pundit and back-room politico wannabe, commenting on his own television appearance wrote: "When you are nice, you look like a decent person and it sets the tone for everything else you say." (I won't identify this blogbrat; he's had his 15 minutes of fame already.)

Daddy tried. To be nice. He tried very hard, scrunching up his visage in a semblance of a grin that silently telegraphed: Nonono nono ... not wearing my furious face, nonono nono.

Which was very, very challenging because Mommy and the Boys were very, very angry with Daddy and they didn't have to be so nice.

Round and round and round went the haggling about the economy, with Daddy holding fast to his NOT American fundamentals and the boys spouting all the important economic words like fiscal prudence, pensions, laissez-faire, corporate tax breaks, regulations - except for these. Then Mommy said something about the neighbours who were all talking about Daddy's bad spending habits:

"In the opinion of the economists worldwide and in an OECD report, the conclusions are clear — Mr. Harper's policies are threatening Canada's future with the decisions he's made to favour the oil sector and only the oil sector."

First round winner: Mommy.

Food safety. Daddy said that it wasn't his fault the listeriosis outbreak happened, he blamed those dirty Lib guys who owned the House before he moved in. That's not what the Doctor wrote in his journal, Mommy and the boys yelled. Daddy said the Doctor was a dirty Lib too.

Second Round winner: Not Daddy.

Gilles was the most angry at Daddy, about receiving the wrong declaration about Québec when everyone else got the right one, about the nasty things that Michael 'Teflon' Fortier said regarding the Bloc, about not having a distinct role in UNESCO, about not allowing French as a viable working language for bilingual federal services employees, about lack of recognition for his province's observance of the Kyoto Accord, about deep cuts to programs that fund hard-working artists and about jailing young offenders.

Third Round winner: Gilles

Stéphane wanted to kick Daddy out of the House, and scrub it clean to get rid of all the toxic things Daddy has done that aren't healthy and green and carbon-reducing. Stéphane said the 'P' word, the word that Daddy won't say in the House because even if Daddy is always blaming everyone else for spreading disinformation about Daddy and his friends, that is one excuse that Daddy won't ever ever use or let anyone else use and that is Poverty.

Fourth Round winner: Stéphane

Jack got a couple of good jabs; you just know when no one is looking Jack sits in Daddy's big Lazyboy chair just to feel out what it's like to be Daddy.

Mommy landed a couple of good smacks on Daddy. She sure wasn't afraid to use the words mensonge and fraude to describe Daddy's petulant claims about all he's done for us.

And so it went, for another hour. I kept seeing flashes of old sit-coms: Stephen Harper as Archie Bunker with more hair and a better wardrobe, Elizabeth-Edith May, Jack 'Meathead' Layton and ..... okay, I'm done with this and I need to get to bed.

You want more? Or you want something different? Then read Kady O'Malley on the next leaders' debate later today, en anglais. That's why she gets paid the big bucks.

And now ladies and germs,

... your special Harper appearance scripted for an exclusive audience.

There’s something entertaining about the limited range of Stephen Harper’s performances during the course of this election campaign. As October 14 looms nearer, it becomes quite apparent that a decision was made regarding which particular acts should be punched up in order to reach and reassure ambivalent voters.

Indeed the scripting, staging and styling of Stephen Harper was anticipated well ahead of the moment chosen to call the elections. For example Michelle Muntean has been on board for a while. Requests for information made to disclose who has been paying for her styling skills are deflected. L’idée du jour says she is paid through some undisclosed discretionary slush fund that every elected member of the House of Commons is allowed.

Famous blue sweater. Leading up to the drop of the writ for the elections, Harper was cleverly portrayed in political advertisements and in ‘candid shots’ as a home-spun, piano-playing, kitten-patting warm fuzzy guy. Many agreed with my impression that this incarnation was creepy and phony, yet some took exception to my description of the cringe factor.

The object of lust. In a truly bizarre move, Mashline, the online news/social media website owned by Conservative supporters, paid out a large sum of money to secure the rights to a Canadian version of "I have a crush on Obama". It was a weird marketing ruse for the former Reformers (they count the faux-doctor Charles McVety among their staunch supporters). After all, the girl who crooned this insipid little ditty was definitely not Harper’s wife.

Was it a lame attempt to convince women of Harper’s charms? Unlike brilliant YouTube creations that went viral upon their release – Culture en Péril, even in its 9 minute version got more hits – this gimmick quickly flopped out of sight.

Bad Con, Faux Con. At an overtly scripted event staged for the purpose of announcing the Conservatives' changes to the Young Offenders' Act, Harper appeared in a suit jacket & sweater vest combo. He was posed holding the hand of Theresa McCuaig who clutched a photo of her dead grandson, conveniently killed by young offenders (convenient that is, for the Cons' photo opportunity, not for Sylvain Leduc and those who mourn him).

The veneer of Harper’s smoothly orchestrated public appearances and sound bites cracked last week when he lashed out at the insubordinate and insurgent artists who continue to voice criticism of his policies. The nasty and real Stephen Harper – not the well-crafted façade – held forth about culture and those he labeled rich gala-goers. So unlike the ordinary working people”, he sneered. Not that Harper has anything in common with ordinary working people.

The nasty flip side of ‘Family Man’ emerged. Shortly after Harper exploded with bitter remarks, his generous and hard-working spouse Laureen put an end to her volunteer responsibilities as chair of the National Arts Centre Gala. No doubt her continued participation in the organization of a cultural event of the type held in contempt by her husband would seem to undermine his authority. His children were removed from field trips organized by their schools, since attending theatre or any cultural event would not be congruent with their father’s crude opinion of the arts.

Like any carefully constructed Con game, the purpose is to manipulate the outcome. Any detail that contradicts or detracts from the purposeful image must be removed. Absolute control over the audience is also a key element to the success of this strategy.

Watching the contrived transformations of Stephen Harper into divertissement that draws attention away from the real man behind the masks, but especially from the real issues of this election, is evocative of .... no, not old-style vaudeville or carnival tent shows, though that would be delicious irony. Harper’s calculated displays are similar to those found in old-fashioned National Geographic documentaries – the ones about predatory animals and the various guises they adopt to fool their prey.

Un grand merci to alison - your blogpost provided an important perspective.

Update: Go read Nothing could be further from the truth for an excoriating analysis of the commercial media's complicity in this Con game show.

I wrote a Letter to the Editor for the Conservative Party

... and so can you!

Inspired by this woman's account, I zoomed over to the CPC website.

After reading 10 facts that I did not know about Stephen Harper, I had a short nap. When I woke up, I clicked on the 'Write a Letter to the Editor' link. I was taken to a page where I had to provide my postal code. I considered my options - making up or borrowing existing information so I opted for a combination of the two; I gave the code for a neighbourhood housing co-op.

Topic for Letter to Editor. The choices were health care, lower taxes, Arctic Sovereignty, Help for first-time homebuyers, Child care, Environment, Supporting self-employed mothers, Support for Seniors, Tackling Crime, Accountability, Cutting the excise tax on diesel.

Decisions, decisions. I selected 'Supporting self-employed mothers'.

Next page, I could click on The Globe and Mail or The National Post. I picked the Post. Then boxes, with Asterisks flagging information that HAD to be given. The set-up was interesting. The default province was Alberta. There were 5 boxes dedicated to information about the street: Number, Number Sfx, Name, Direction, Type. (Is that a Calgary idiosyncrasy?) I entered a fictitious name, then location info about the housing co-op. For Street Direction I provided 'One-Way'; for email address, another inspired bit of fiction.

I was ready to write my Letter to the Editor!

On the next page there was a box for the subject line, and the text, helpful hints and, MOST importantly, CPC platform points. I was crass. I copied most of the platform points with a few embellishments. This was my Letter to the Editor:

To whom it may concern,

Canadian women deserve the right to make the best choices for their families. No one should be forced to choose between starting a family and starting a business because of government policy. That's why Prime Minister Stephen Harper's announcement that Conservatives will give self-employed Canadians the opportunity to opt-in to maternity and parental employment insurance benefits is important and will keep women off welfare and in the house.

In 2007, more than 2.6 million people were self-employed in Canada and one third of them were women. Now these women will have the choice to pay into the EI program so that when they need to take the time to care for their newborns, they have financial support so they don't have to sue men for alimony.

This announcement is another example of how Conservatives will help our economy and our families.

Well, that sure was a LOT of fun. I hope that the housing co-op people aren't too cranky with the CPC flunky who calls their phone number to check up on Sergei Lafortune.

Good Con, Bad Con

Today's front page photo, Le Droit. Yesterday Harper spoke at a sparsely attended venue in Vanier Ontario for the purpose of announcing changes to the Young Offenders Act, with harsher penalties.

Angela Campbell, who specializes in children and the law at McGill University's law faculty, doubted Harper's proposal will curb youth crime. She called it a "hard-line, law-and-order approach that is very simplistic ,,,, People who believe that young people are committing more acts of violence will say 'that's a great idea.' However, the reality is that crime perpetrated by young people has actually diminished quite consistently in Quebec and across Canada."

There is no evidence that tougher penalties and naming teenage perpetrators has any dissuasive effect on their actions, Campbell said. Montreal lawyer René Binet said this approach is "more emotional than rational because there is no study that shows that tougher sentences lead to a lower crime rate."

Harper is posed with Theresa McCuaig and a picture of her dead grandson.

A Con-ning photo opportunity.

What's next? Gerry Ritz in a Ronald McDonald suit, cozying up to families holding pictures of their elderly parents or infants, killed by listeriosis?

Harper and his Conservatives are making public safety an issue in this election campaign. This may be their strategy for avoiding a debate on the hot-button topic of public health.

In today's Le Devoir, Brian Myles writes about punishment as a weapon of mass dissuasion. He points out that politicians (I would add, of the right-wing, so-con persuasion) are particularly fond of this solution.

Law-and-order statistics seem to indicate that in spite of screaming headlines and sensationalistic news coverage that offer little or no analysis, the increases in violent crimes committed by young offenders may not warrant the draconian measures advanced by the Conservatives.

It would appear this is more of the same-old same-old reactionary mise-en-scène for Harper and his gang-that-shoots-itself-in-the-foot, as a tactic to engineer a holy majority.

Update/September 24: Radio-Canada reports that the Québec Minister for Justice and Public Safety, Jacques Dupuis and Yves Francoeur, president of the police officers' union are opposed to the changes in the Young Offenders Act that were announced yesterday.