hiti

They are called prairie oysters. You are from Alberta, aren't you? Not those oysters......... They are only a very small part. Visit a slaughter plant and witness what is not thrown out. Enjoy your hot dog.

WOW! Steve and Flim Flam overspent by $11 billion this past year while Ralph Goodale underspent by $2 billion. PLUS Steve and Flim Flam RAISED personal taxes!!!!! More than half of the surplus came from personal income taxes and it has been spent on crapola for Con pet projects like $100 per month that is not day care, rebates for public transit which did NOT increase transit use, rebates so rich kids can play hockey, and more crapola of the same, none of which benefits the country. I don't care how much the Liberals underestimated their surplus......... At least the economy was in better shape and people had more of their money in their own pockets.

WOW! Using a fork and knife is wimpy but wearing a cowboy hat backwards is macho. Well at least Dion will eat a hot dog. I wouldn't touch one of those with a ten foot pole, never mind a fork and knife. Ya just never know what they throw into those things. Why it was just a few years ago that they stopped putting lungs in hot dogs. Wonder what they do with the sex organs...........

Afghanistan does not want to be rebuilt in Canada's image. If we take our 2,500 soldiers from Kandahar in 2009 as planned and shift our soldiers efforts to reconstruction, or to policing, we will hardly be dooming the mission. NATO will be forced to find another country to volunteer its soldiers to serve as target practice for the Taliban. "Unfortunately, the people in the West think their lives are more important than our lives," Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf said recently. In fact, the civilian deaths -- conservatively numbered at 136 this year, and 700 last -- are increasing tension within Afghanistan, where President Hamid Karzai has been pleading with NATO to be more careful. He likes to keep things simple for us: We can't be trusted with complications. We aren't supposed to notice, for instance, that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, far from thwarting terrorism, appear to be spawning a new epidemic of suicide bombings. We are expected to believe that sending tanks to Afghanistan will keep us safe at home and ignore the failure to properly screen tarmac workers at Canadian airports. When he wasn't handing pencil cases to orphans, Harper gave Karzai an Ottawa Sens sleeper for the president's four-month-old son. Some will find the gesture touching: that was the intent. For others (including me), it was cheap theatrics: using hockey and a newborn to sell a war. There is no doubting that Harper sincerely believes in this war: It is hardly a vote-getting gambit. But that doesn't mean he is right. Susan Riley writes for the Ottawa Citizen I totally agree with Susan Riley. Steve just wants to have an excuse to strut around in a helmet and a vest (flak jacket) and play Bush. Buying 100 Leopard tanks for the military is overkill considering that at present we only have 17 tanks. And lying about the cost of the tanks is typical Steve. We are not doing our job in Afghanistan. We are threatening the county and it's population with the killing of civilians and the burning of crops. Canada should get back to it's original mission........ a shift back to a more constructive, peacekeeping role with genuine reconstruction and training of Afghanistan soldiers and policemen. And don't any Harperite try to say that it was the Liberals who sent our forces to Afghanistan because Steve changed the mission to a military agenda and only he wears the mission now. Steve extended the mission after only a two-hour debate in the Commons and a 149-145 vote which does not give him carte blanche to stay in Afghanistan as long as he needs a handy photo-op.

Wonder what Steve's image adviser thought of Afghanistan? She let him wear a vest.... again. Bet he forced her to let him wear it. He wanted to look like the big boys.

http://communities.canada.com/nationalpost...07/427x375.aspx http://www.theglobeandmail.com/v5/images/n...cartoon-400.png Hilarious

Hmm, it is the military. They serve under a chain of commander. They were ordered by a superior officer to return to the area and that means they are being used for photo-ops? Where the hell does that come from? Yup they were being used for photo-ops cause it sounds like Steve would have been blabbing to an empty room if the superior officer did not issue the order to stay in the same room. LOL

And what do the soldiers in Afganistan think of being used for photo-ops? Quote- Scores of soldiers began filing out the moment the prime minister finished speaking. An officer stopped them and said: "The prime minister is still here - so that means we're still here. Get back inside."

There is no more important job to do than cleaning up government and bringing accountability back to Ottawa. - Stephen Harper, Nov. 4, 2005 LAWRENCE MARTIN May 21, 2007 At the outset, this was a government intent on bold contrast to Liberal rule by bringing a new morality to governance. Transparency, cleanliness, accountability were the watchwords. The Conservatives of Stephen Harper were Canada's moral minority. Take a look now, however, and try to find anyone who is describing this government as ethically high-minded. Hopes that our hockey-fan Prime Minister might have captained a classy team have been dashed. What we have instead is something more akin to the Philadelphia Flyers of the 1970s -- the "Broad Street Bullies." It's rare that a week has gone by without evidence of blatant obstructionism, or ministerial misconduct, or political thuggery of some kind. The Conservatives haven't yet stooped to the levels of contamination that the Grits reached in their bad seasons. But give them time. In the Commons, they typically ran away from pointed questions, choosing instead to "hide behind political rants," as Liberal Ken Dryden put it. On the cleanliness front, they've been caught up in several conflict-of-interest allegations and, now, just like the Grits, are getting dinged for living the high life at taxpayers' expense. The Conservatives, to their credit, brought in accountability legislation that had many good features. But their comportment has served to undermine what the act represents. They repeatedly seek to justify their own failings by pointing to the failings of previous governments. What kind of defence is that when the whole point of the exercise was to move away from the sullied Liberal ethic? The new morality was to be one of this government's cornerstones. In less than a year and a half, the cornerstone has crumbled. http://tinyurl.com/38bmmx The wheels have fallen off little Steve's red wagon and his lies are exposed.

McGuinty just spent 19.5 million for Toronto's immigrants from a provincial Liberal slush fund, give him a call,I'm sure he's got $38,000 lying around for Toronto kids. Too bad you neglected the rest of the article. So what are you raggin' about? If Solberg's blabbering was so wonderful, why then are the Cons backtracking on their compassionate cuts to funding student jobs in autistic and low-income kids jobs? Huh? And what does lower student unemployment have to do with programs for autistic and low-income kids? Wonderful what polls do for a "compassionate" government.

bruce campion-smith ottawa bureau OTTAWA–For more than a decade, the "Yes I Can!" nursery school in Toronto has taken in autistic and low-income kids for its award-winning summer programs, thanks to federal grants that made it possible to hire student counsellors. But not this year. In a surprise move, the federal Conservative government has rejected the centre's request for $38,000, putting its program in peril. "We got a rejection letter," executive director Janet MacDougall said yesterday. "We can't run camp. That's the bottom line." Now MacDougall is dreading having to break the bad news to the parents of 45 children – all with autism – who have already signed up for the summer camp, run out of Bedford Park United Church, in north Toronto. Over the winter, the Conservative government brought in a new name and a new mandate for its Canada Summer Jobs program. And now, as students and organizations make their summer plans, those changes are having a big impact as organizations across the city – and the country – discover programs that have existed for years won't get government cash this year. "It's devastating, although I knew something was wrong. I was calling and no one was calling me back," MacDougall said in an interview. The summer jobs program is meant to help young Canadians obtain career information, develop skills and find good jobs, according to a government website. But last September, the Tories chopped the Youth Employment Strategy that helped about 50,000 people find work last summer, saving $55.4 million. http://www.thestar.com/News/article/214895 This scummy "new" government is stinking up the whole country with their "compassion"

I don't need light bulbs breaking and spilling mercury in my home. CFL's give me a headache so I will wait for the new GE bulbs and a liberal government.

As Andrew Coyne says in his column........... The position of the government of Canada is very clear. We have always opposed torture of any kind. We don’t like to hear of anyone being tortured. And this government is willing to take the difficult steps needed to make sure that we never do. http://andrewcoyne.com/columns/2007/05/sto...-killing-me.php

Seems like Ms May has been added to a very long list of politicians who like to use Neville Chamberlain as a rhetorical comparison. http://www.macleans.ca/homepage/features/a...502_190456_5108 The glass house is getting crowded Why are so many MPs so fond of Neville Chamberlain? Philippe Gohier, Macleans.ca | May 2, 2007 | 7:07 pm EST As Macleans.ca first pointed out this morning, Green Party leader Elizabeth May is hardly the first Canadian politician to use Neville Chamberlain as a rhetorical device. For instance, in a manner strikingly similar to May's, NDP leader Jack Layton suggested in 2005 that then-prime minister Paul Martin's failure to meet Kyoto targets made "Neville Chamberlain look like a stalwart in standing up to a crisis." Two years later, Layton is feeling a sudden surge of decorum. "Well, we certainly would have never made any such comparison," he said Tuesday, when asked by reporters about May's comment. -end quote On that list is Gerald Keddy, Stockwell Day, Leon Benoit, Brian Fitzpatrick, and joining NDP Jack Layton is Alexa McDonough; Now the self-righteous rise up and condemn Ms May, embellishing and twisting what she said. tsk, tsk

Garth Turner also wants an election. Quote-Mr. Harper is our national leader, and yet he does not embody the nation’s values. He is an aberration of our flawed political system, a party leader elected when not enough of us were paying attention, then chosen by an absolute minority of the people, and yet handed the power of an American president. Such power, he has used in a reckless and arrogant fact, while ironically calling his government ethical, accountable, open and transparent. But, transparent it has become. And we need an election. Now. http://www.garth.ca/weblog/page/3/

This is what Steve gave us http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives...ADAPOLITICS.jpg plus a ban on cheap light bulbs and we will be forced to use dangerous mercury light bulbs. Did Steve and his bulldog forget to check out the research that GE is doing for an energy efficient light bulb that will not use mercury? Guess they did, amongst so many things they forgot to do.

Stop the gerbil wheel........ Kevin Potvin is not, I repeat - is not a Green candidate. He was not approved by his leader Ms May and this has absolutely nothing to do with Dion.

Now Bush invented fixed election dates? Come on, can't you do better than that? You wanna try that again? Canada is not a republic but Steve keeps on trying to change Canada to mirror the neighbours south of us, especially the republican party.

The Conservatives pulled even with the Liberals in the middle of December. Pesky thing those facts. Facts.... Liberals were ahead at the end of December.

Hilliar said? Another pants on fire con.

What's the next Bush republican move by Steve and his cons?

those ads never aired and they still cost Paul Martin his career. Where were you in 2005/6? The Liberals remained ahead, even after the Cons released ads that were not selected to be released until......... the RCMP stuck their noses into the election and wrote a letter to the NDP and when nobody called a news conference they phoned the NDP to make sure they found the letter that was in an office that was locked up over the christmas holidays. Well the RCMP got theirs... next it's Steve's turn. The Greens will take care of the NDP.

OTTAWA (CP) - The Liberals are accusing Prime Minister Stephen Harper of misleading the House of Commons over the alleged torture of Afghan detainees. The latest uproar relates to the question of when Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day revealed that Corrections Canada officers had reported allegations of torture from detainees. Harper told the House on Tuesday that Day disclosed the information last week, citing Commons transcript as proof. But a review of the transcript of Day's comments shows no mention of the corrections officers reporting allegations of torture. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion noted that the first time anyone heard about the reports was on Monday when Day was pressed by journalists. The issue of whether Canadian officials reported torture claims is key to the federal government's defence in a lawsuit by human rights groups, which seeks to halt the transfer of captured insurgents to Afghan authorities. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/200...4148311-cp.html So now we can say Steve pants on fire #2 or is Peter pants on fire #2 and Steve #1 liar pants on fire.

Where did Steve acquire his Straussian politics of secrecy and elitism combined with a Schmitt authoritarianism of the strong man as leader? http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2007/04/leo-st...ary-school.html Strauss Rule One: Deception It's hardly surprising then why Strauss is so popular in an administration obsessed with secrecy, especially when it comes to matters of foreign policy. Not only did Strauss have few qualms about using deception in politics, he saw it as a necessity. While professing deep respect for American democracy, Strauss believed that societies should be hierarchical, divided between an elite who should lead, and the masses who should follow. But unlike fellow elitists like Plato, he was less concerned with the moral character of these leaders. According to Shadia Drury, who teaches politics at the University of Calgary, (Harper's school) Strauss believed that "those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right, the right of the superior to rule over the inferior." This dichotomy requires "perpetual deception" between the rulers and the ruled, according to Drury. Robert Locke, another Strauss analyst says,"The people are told what they need to know and no more." While the elite few are capable of absorbing the absence of any moral truth, Strauss thought, the masses could not cope. If exposed to the absence of absolute truth, they would quickly fall into nihilism or anarchy, according to Drury, author of 'Leo Strauss and the American Right' (St. Martin's 1999). Second Principle: Power of Religion According to Drury, Strauss had a "huge contempt" for secular democracy. Nazism, he believed, was a nihilistic reaction to the irreligious and liberal nature of the Weimar Republic. Among other neoconservatives, Irving Kristol has long argued for a much greater role for religion in the public sphere, even suggesting that the Founding Fathers of the American Republic made a major mistake by insisting on the separation of church and state. And why? Because Strauss viewed religion as absolutely essential in order to impose moral law on the masses who otherwise would be out of control. At the same time, he stressed that religion was for the masses alone; the rulers need not be bound by it. Indeed, it would be absurd if they were, since the truths proclaimed by religion were "a pious fraud." As Ronald Bailey, science correspondent for Reason magazine points out, "Neoconservatives are pro-religion even though they themselves may not be believers." "Secular society in their view is the worst possible thing,'' Drury says, because it leads to individualism, liberalism, and relativism, precisely those traits that may promote dissent that in turn could dangerously weaken society's ability to cope with external threats. Bailey argues that it is this firm belief in the political utility of religion as an "opiate of the masses" that helps explain why secular Jews like Kristol in 'Commentary' magazine and other neoconservative journals have allied themselves with the Christian Right and even taken on Darwin's theory of evolution. Third Principle: Aggressive Nationalism Like Thomas Hobbes, Strauss believed that the inherently aggressive nature of human beings could only be restrained by a powerful nationalistic state. "Because mankind is intrinsically wicked, he has to be governed," he once wrote. "Such governance can only be established, however, when men are united ? and they can only be united against other people." Not surprisingly, Strauss' attitude toward foreign policy was distinctly Machiavellian. "Strauss thinks that a political order can be stable only if it is united by an external threat," Drury wrote in her book. "Following Machiavelli, he maintained that if no external threat exists then one has to be manufactured (emphases added)." "Perpetual war, not perpetual peace, is what Straussians believe in," says Drury. The idea easily translates into, in her words, an "aggressive, belligerent foreign policy," of the kind that has been advocated by neocon groups like PNAC and AEI scholars ? not to mention Wolfowitz and other administration hawks who have called for a world order dominated by U.S. military power. Strauss' neoconservative students see foreign policy as a means to fulfill a "national destiny" ? as Irving Kristol defined it already in 1983 ? that goes far beyond the narrow confines of a " myopic national security." As to what a Straussian world order might look like, the analogy was best captured by the philosopher himself in one of his ? and student Allen Bloom's ? many allusions to Gulliver's Travels. In Drury's words, "When Lilliput was on fire, Gulliver urinated over the city, including the palace. In so doing, he saved all of Lilliput from catastrophe, but the Lilliputians were outraged and appalled by such a show of disrespect." The image encapsulates the neoconservative vision of the United States' relationship with the rest of the world ? as well as the relationship between their relationship as a ruling elite with the masses. "They really have no use for liberalism and democracy, but they're conquering the world in the name of liberalism and democracy," Drury says. http://www.alternet.org/story/15935 http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031212.html Wonder if Steve's psychic told him that I would post this info about his agenda.

Good thing that this is not one of the Liberal programs that Steve cut. Too bad the Liberals used 1981 as their cut off date but then Steve used that to make his election promise, which he is now ignoring so 80 year old widows have to hound him to keep his word. And to use the excuse that a staffer wrote the letter is shameful. Just how the double hockey pucks does Steve live with himself?