Friday, January 25, 2008

Election '08: Finally A Candidate The Corgis Can get Behind

Here at Doggerel Party HQ, the US Election has been a cause for concern, because none of the major candidates seems particularly canine-friendly. I mean Hilary could be considered a 'female dog' but the wrong kind, you know.

Until now.

The Corgis wish to give their official endorsement to Sunny for President. With tip 'o the tail to Neo.

CBC News Mistaken Again

... this time they seem to have mistaken ordinary Canadians like me for people who care about what happens to Taliban prisoners once they've been taken alive.

Here's a clue people. When you care more about the people you're fighting than you do for your own, you're not going to win the war.

Shorter National Post

George Smitherman is a blithering idiot.

Just Fancy That

John Cruickshank, December 28, 2007:
I understand that a private association like the Conservative party does not have the sort of transparent and reliable complaints process that we have at the CBC. That is regrettable.
John Cruickshank, January 23, 2008:
As Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC has a special responsibility to our national audience. Part of that responsibility is that the process of accountability has to be transparent. We are obliged to show how and why we reach the decisions we do.

...

I accept the reporter's explanation that she did not do this to advantage the Liberals or hurt the Conservatives — that she just wanted answers for her story.
So much for transparency. One thing is transparent; we can all see through you, Mr. Cruickshank.

A Touching Tribute

over at SDA, Kate has a lovely tribute to the man who embodies E M Forster's famous quotation, that if given the choice between betraying his friends and betraying his country he hoped to have the guts to betray his country.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Never Mind The Long Nose

... the corgis always knew those ears would come in handy one of these days.
Angie, watching construction of
her pilot cat sequestration facility

Too Bad They Disbanded

... perhaps Captain Harold Kenny would have been happier serving a Provisional Republican Army in his beloved homeland.

On The Seventh Day

God rested.

And on the eighth day, Senator Jaffer worked 30 hours.

Casin-O-Warman: We only allegedly cheat

Kathy Shaidle has updated her post on SDA concerning the alleged sock-puppeting activities of Richard Warman. I'm happy to go along with that and say that Warman is alleged to have posted a racist rant against Senator Cools on the freedomsite.org discussion forums.

While this is therefore an allegation that is unproven, circumstantial evidence does exist; is it really likely that by coincidence two different Rogers subscribers are assigned the same IP address on different days, and both head over to freedomsite.org to post just one message from an anonymous email account that is used only once? It's possible but highly unlikely.

Some have pointed out that Richard Warman has denied under oath that he authored this post - of course he denied using the first of those email accounts under oath too, until confronted with the proof that he had in fact done so. On that occasion he 'stood corrected.' Perhaps he's having the same trouble with his memory this time around, or perhaps not. However we have at least one concrete example of Mr. Warman's recollection failing him while under oath.

In the end, it doesn't really matter. The real enemy of freedom and democracy here isn't Richard Warman, it's the system he uses and abuses. It's the HRCs that need to be reigned in.

Monday, January 21, 2008

CBC Buys New Carpet...

... sweeps Krista Erickson under it.

On CBC Radio Ottawa tonight, the news contained the snippet that Krista Erickson did in fact feed questions to 'an MP' (note, not a Liberal MP, just 'an MP') on the committee investigating the Mulroney-Schreiber affair. However, CBC management had determined that she had no partisan intent and there was no bias in CBC news coverage.

She feeds questions to a Liberal MP who is not ordinarily part of the committee, and which have nothing to do with the matter before the committee. The only goal of the line of questioning was to link Mulroney to the present Conservative government. But she had 'no partisan intent'? Oh, I get it, she was just bored!

CBC: Not just rotten to the core, but rotten at the top too. Mr. Cruickshank, you're a liar and you know it.

Please, Cllr Eckersley

... no matter how much you've had to drink in a Smiths Falls pub, and how much you love being at the centre of controversy, spare us this.

H/t to Mike.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Good Company

Canada's Human Rights Commissions... in the best company: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and ... Belarus. How are those Liberal Canadian Values working for ya now?

Sunday, January 13, 2008

For Ezra

"They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me, then they will have my dead body. NOT MY OBEDIENCE!" - Gandhi

Could we have a better champion of the basic rights and values of western liberal democracy than Ezra Levant this weekend? The corgis think not.




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Wednesday, January 09, 2008

CBC Coincidence?

Could this:


be related to this?

Hillary Clinton: An Apology

In recent days, we may have given readers the impression that Hillary Clinton was a washed-up, bitter old hag whose presidential campaign was in freefall. We now recognize that in fact Mrs. Clinton is a viable candidate who we predicted all along would win handily in New Hampshire. We apologize for any confusion

(c) 2008 all media outlets, ad nauseum.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

A Song Request

This one goes out to Councillor Bill Eckersley...

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Montague Council : Wind(bags) of Change

Sadly, after a year of relative peace and quiet in our little backwater of Eastern Ontario, in which many bridges looked well on the way to being mended, and hatchets buried, events have overtaken us.

Deputy Reeve Peter Kavanagh has been increasingly called away in the course of his consulting business and therefore has made the difficult decision to step down. TDPC applauds Peter for his courage and integrity in making this decision, and for the very significant contribution he has made to Montague. He will be missed.

The resignation left council with the option of appointing someone to serve the remainder of the term, or holding a by-election, and here's where things get interesting again. The press coverage of the meeting in which council reached the decision to hold a byelection is nothing short of an embarrassment to the township.

Some people were apparently miffed that Peter Kavanagh had discussed his resignation with Reeve John McTavish the night before he publicly announced it at council. Clearly to any right thinking person this was a correct and proper course of action, and Mr. McTavish was entirely correct to respect the confidence Peter asked for. The Deputy Reeve is exactly that, a deputy for the Reeve, so it only makes sense that the Reeve should be the first to know and should have had input into Peter's decision.

More embarrassment stemmed from Cllr. Bill Eckersley's "long winded" public address. Eckersley apologised to the public for the cost of the upcoming byelection - thus confirming that he favoured the appointment solution. He went on to talk about rumours in the township concerning remarks he may, or may not have, uttered while intoxicated, or not intoxicated, in a pub in Smiths Falls. Yes, in an open council meeting, in front of the press, your elected representative went there. It isn't clear from the Record News report whether Eckersley denied either being intoxicated or making the offending remarks, but what a spectacle.

However, the Record News does offer the solution to the conundrum of why Eckersley was so excercised. "You made sure it would be anyone but me," he's quoted as saying, and in the process revealing that the real issue here was his own political aspirations. He then voted in favour of holding the byelection, claiming that he had no choice. To quote a former PM, 'Sir, you had a choice'. If you favour appointment, vote for appointment. If you vote for a byelection to be held, then quit pretending you didn't want a byelection to be held. This is not rocket science, Councillor and we're not as dumb as you might think we are, just because we happen to live in the boonies. And if you want to be Deputy Reeve, go ahead and stand in the byelection. It'll do wonders for the sale of earplugs in Lanark if you win.

As it is, thanks to the media coverage, Montague council is again being held up as a laughing-stock in the area. Cllr. Eckersley is proud of the many courses he's undertaken as part of his education in public service. The one course he needs is one that is offered only in the University of Life, and that is when to keep one's mouth shut.

A Belated New Year's Message From The Corgis

Well, 2007 has left us and 2008 is already under way. First off, the corgis wish all readers (if there are any left) a Happy New Year. Even those who disagree with them.

I'm not proposing to look back at 2007 here, except to note that it was a year of some personal upheaval and career change for me which is what caused TDPC to lapse for the last three months or so. Rather, I'm going to look forward to 2008 and some of the things I expect to be writing about.

First off, it looks as though we will likely be into a federal election sometime in 2008. I followed the last one through the pages of SDA, Stephen Taylor and others and this will be the first campaign where the corgis weigh in with their say. I think I am not giving too much away when I say that Angie will be pushing for the GST on dog treats to be completely eliminated.

Secondly, there will be a major focus in 2008 on issues surrounding free speech and censorship in Canada. The war between the Warman-HRC complex and supporters of free speech will come to a head in 2008, as the Macleans case makes the issue widely visible. TDPC will be committed to challenging censorship and restrictions on freedom of expression. Related, we will be following the libel case in which the operators of the Quebec puppy mill known as "Paws 'R' Us" are suing Lorie Gordon for forum postings she made about a sick dog they sold her. This is expected to go to trial in March.

Thirdly, issues of childcare and education will come to the fore at TDPC headquarters as we look at our first steps into the Ontario education system - or not, as the case may be. We have decisions to make about schooling and after the train wreck of the faith based schools debate in Ontario we'll be looking at education policy and the reality in the classrooms very closely.

But before all of those things happen, it's back to local politics again. The first real post of 2008 follows. Put on your hard hat, safety harness, body armour and flame proof suits - it's byelection time in Montague township.

Add in a regular dose of anything bizarre, fun, interesting or contraversial we come across and it should be an interesting year.