Mike Duffy, you are a tool

And Harper is a fool for taking the bait. Here is The National Post's Don Martin on Harper's comment of the whole incident:

To use his first spontaneous media appearance of the campaign to declare Mr. Dion the most unworthy of the two candidates for prime minister based on a minute of misunderstanding is not the most flattering reaction for the prime minister.

In the end the incident they hoped to use to define Mr. Dion as a confused ditherer may actually provide more telling insight into the character of Stephen Harper.

This tempest in a teapot is rather eloquently summed up here. And kudos to Mr. Comartin for his unfailing decency. I hope he gets re-elected on Tuesday.

As for Mr. Duffy? Heck, this isn't even the first time this week he's been a total jerk, and Ms. Elizabeth May was stellar in calling him on it:


CTV has some better assets at their disposal than Duffy. If there was ever a time for fresh blood, it's now. Duffy, I know you're not reading this, but let me tell you something: I studied journalism under Lindsay Crysler, Enn Raudsepp, Rod McDonnell and a host of other painstakingly ethical professors at Concordia University in the 80s and early 90s. This sort of thing would have given me a failed grade and censure from the department. You have a national audience. Canada deserves better than this from its biggest commercial television network.

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Tank By Tuesday!! (new CPC slogan)

If that's not the new slogan, it sure appears to be their new modus operandi. I am starting to put things together here. Seems the SHITs* have lost all the non-Harper backroom assets normally at their disposal.

Michael Fortier and Peter MacKay (the latter of which is a complete dumb-ass anyway) are both fighting tooth-and-nail just for their own ridings. Fortier also has the added burden of covering for many Montreal area candidates' media requests (not entirely surprising, given that some can't even answer a simple question in french). Fortier was key to the strategy behind the 2006 campaign, so that's one major brain that isn't nearly as available to the national campaign as they would surely like.

Back in March, Peevey Stevie's braintrust, Ian Brodie became a liability he could no longer be seen talking to - particularly now that the candidacy he was attempting to sandbag is now clearly heading for the White House. So that's a second "brains behind the operation" gone.

Then they lost number 3 in week one of the campaign when Ryan Sparrow had to be given the boot over Puffin-Poop Peccadillo and his public dumping on the father of a Canadian soldier that had been killed in action in Afghanistan.

So his behind-the-scenes team was already bleeding out profusely by the time he had to dismiss his longtime aide, Owen Lippert, who dutifully fell on his sword over the John Howard speech plagiarism scandal last week.

With his cupboard bare, Harper now has to rely on his own tin ear to lurch along through the rest of the campaign. And all he can do is revel in his own perceived brilliance, and speak over the heads of these silly Canadian voters, directly to his true constituents: the Neo-Con masters such as Karl Rove.

So spread the word: the new mantra is for the Conservatives is "TBT", or

"Tank By Tuesday"

Can they do it? Tune in this time next week to find out!

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(Tip 'o the Hat to Cyberwanderer for that last link.)

*For the uninitiated: that's the Secret Harper Imitation Tories.

Dion's got his mojo back

When asked how he expects Stephen Harper to respond to the news that "more than 230 economists teaching in Canadian universities (were collectively) calling for economically coherent action on climate change and putting a price on carbon", Stephane Dion responded:

"He will, Stephen Harper, say that they are crazy, they are insane," Dion said. "There is only one economist who is disagreeing with them and he's still prime minister, but hopefully, won't be by next Tuesday."

SNAP!!



Yeeeeeah, baby!

What was that about corporate greed and corruption?

Just in case you missed it at the congressional hearings into the AIG collapse, here is a sweet little tidbit:

House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., also said that even as losses were engulfing the company, AIG executives depleted AIG's capital through stock buybacks and higher dividends.

Pretty much sums up a sick and twisted situation for you. Looks like things are going to get ugly, and we have barely scratched the surface.

For more blood-boiling AIG outrages - even post-bailout! - see this stuff over at dailykos.

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No Depression?

Oh joy:

The word “recession” wouldn’t describe the deep structural problems affecting everything from the U.S. housing sector to the Canadian oil industry, said Bank of Nova Scotia chief economist Warren Jestin.

“You have to invent a new word to describe what we’re in now,” he said after the banks presented their perspectives at the Economic Club today.

How about: Global Economic Shitstorm?

But please, no depression. (Apologies to Uncle Tupelo).



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Tories' record of blood on their hands

From the CBC: fresh allegations the Secret Harper Imitation Tories turned the CFIA from inspectors to mere paperwork auditors.

"We might not have had anybody dead [if company officials were still obligated to report positive listeria findings]. It's terrible. My dad eats this stuff all the time. I eat it," the inspector said.

...

"Before, you had authority, you were like a cop. We were the meat police. Now, you're just looking at the paperwork," the Toronto-area inspector said.

Gilles Duceppe had it right yesterday, calling Harper out for having no moral compass.