How About "Lunch"?

The PM wants your help naming his new kitten.

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No Further Questions!

Harper shuts down his own press conference.

On Thursday, Harper was asked to explain why — when Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP leader Jack Layton provide news conferences with no limits on questions — he insists on no more five questions.

Harper chose not to answer that question and moved on to the next questioner.

When journalists then pressed him for an answer to the question he ignored, Harper said. "If there's another subject I'll answer it."

That led to another question from a journalist, who noted that politicians such as himself promise openness and accountability. With that in mind, he was asked again, why the limit on questions during the campaign?

"If there are other subjects I'm not addressing, I'll take them. What's the subject? One subject."

Journalists asked another question, about Canada's position about the conflict in Libya. Harper answered and then ended the news conference.

We are about two days away from full meltdown.

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And They Call Iggy An Out Of Touch Elitist

Maybe instead of debates we should have the various leaders try on work gloves. Is this Harper's "George Bush at the grocery checkout" moment? H/t to Warren K.

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An Iron Curtain Is Descending

Two days before the start of this campaign, I predicted the press would be restricted by the Harperites:

No questions please, this is the PM's chance to talk to the peasants voters.

We are not quite there yet, but it's coming. Harper does not like to be questioned. Period.

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The Worm Has Turned

The worm, of course, is Stephen Harper. It seems the MSM isn't willing to accept his bullshit as gospel anymore. I particularly like how this editorial punctures Harper's lies about guiding us through a recession. If it was up to him, we would be where England is now. The only reason we got stimulus spending was because of the gun being held to his head. That gun was the coalition threat, which Harper so reviles and why not? Being forced to do the sensible thing, is not what Harper wants. He wants a majority so he can do all the wrong things with no accountability.

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Harper Pwned

Andrew Coyne edition. I am glad someone in the MSM is willing to call out Harper on his intellectual dishonesty. I would never want Andrew Coyne to have his fingers on our economy, but if I ever needed someone watching my back on issues related to democracy, he would be my choice.

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Shorter Harper

Bruce Carson? Bruce Carson? Oh yes, he used to work for me I think.

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Stephen Harper's Iraq Do-Over

"If we change every government we don't like in the world where do we start? Who is next?" Jean Chretien, 2003. It is as valid a question today as it was in 2003, when, you will remember, Stephen Harper was hot to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

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On Habitual Cliff Jumping

If we had an opposition, instead of Bob Rae, it would point out that we are already involved in a war in Afghanistan -- a war that has lasted 10 years and is not going all that well. They would insist we clean up our messes elsewhere before jumping off yet another cliff in another part of the middle east. But since we don't have an opposition, just Bob Rae, all we are going to get is "Where do we sign up?".

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Harper Believes In Freedom

That's why he is willing to send your children off to die for it. He, on the other hand, is too busy to go himself. Otherwise, I am sure, he would be the first over the top. Wanker.

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Harper's Friend In Times Of Need

Harper's deal with Satan holds firm. Harper could announce nuclear war with Iceland today and this would still be the lead story. Just where are the crossroads in Ottawa?

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Who Is Krugman Describing

Anyone we know?

When I was young and naïve, I believed that important people took positions based on careful consideration of the options. Now I know better. Much of what Serious People believe rests on prejudices, not analysis. And these prejudices are subject to fads and fashions.

Of course Krugman was being naive, our Prime Minister has built a career on personal ideological prejudice.

Update: Note Krugman's despair at the stupidity of it all. I guess like most Americans, he has not been paying attention to the rise of our Dear Leader and his crack team of economic geniuses.

Update 2: And finally, a challenge to the MSM. If you ever get the chance to ask Harper another question, perhaps you can formulate it, using Krugman's final paragraph as its base:

So the next time you hear serious-sounding people explaining the need for fiscal austerity, try to parse their argument. Almost surely, you’ll discover that what sounds like hardheaded realism actually rests on a foundation of fantasy, on the belief that invisible vigilantes will punish us if we’re bad and the confidence fairy will reward us if we’re good. And real-world policy — policy that will blight the lives of millions of working families — is being built on that foundation.

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Save This Article

Paul Krugman vs. super genius economist, Stephen Harper, in a battle royale over world economic policy. I suspect Harper will take the early rounds, as he is backing the interests of the banks and the rich. However, in the long run, I suspect history will prove Krugman right. Not that Harper gives a shit about the long run. By the time this all blows up, he will safely be in the private sector, sitting on the boards of the very banks he is championing.

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Courage

That's what it takes to publish something like this. Initially, it gave me some hope, because it was published, but the writer himself discounted even that. I see a lot of Stephen Harper in the society being built in Israel, and see some signs that he has instituted at least one tenet of the new state ideology, here (see point ten, KAIROS anyone?). The new Israel is one where rightists feel at home. The new Israel is Israel as designed by Rob Anders.

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Thanks Norm

Norman Spector lists the reasons for Harper's success. I will break them down for you:

1. Harper doesn't put on airs, like Iggy does. Oh and Harper is writing a hockey book.

2. Harper is good to his base. Well, duh.

3. Canadians are deliberately bone ignorant about what is going on in their own government and cynical about politicians in general. I would say that if you beat a person long enough and shift his job to China, he will turn off politics and focus on survival.

4. Canada has an electoral system that favors Harper at the moment. I would say it is time to get rid of such a system, but it remains a difficult proposition because the people who control the means of mass communications in this country like the system as it is. It is much better to have one or two actors to lobby than five. So change, if it ever comes, will be very, very long term. So, I hope you like perpetual one party dictatorships as much as our owners do.

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Thought Of The Day

This was the year that threatened to put Canadians through the tedium of yet another federal election – the fourth in a five-year stretch. Smile, everyone. We avoided that as well. -- Lawrence Martin

As long as this remains the dominant notion in our politics, Harper wins. He knows that he can do what ever he wants as long as he keeps his base happy, so the polls stay roughly where they have been for five years. Harper gives the opposition two choices, back down or call an election. He knows that as long as the polls are stable and another minority is in the cards, the opposition will back down.

Harper has unlocked the secret to minority party rule, by an ideologically minority party -- no compromise, constantly stroking the base and daring the opposition to cause another "tedious" election. It is a fiendishly brilliant strategy, but dangerous for the country.

If Harper continues to get away with it, his methods will find their way into every party's toolbox. Also, if elections are seen as tedious, rather than as essential to our form of government, we risk becoming the first country to adopt dictatorship by ennui. Merry Christmas.

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Simple Answers To Simple Questions

Gerald Caplan writes:

The Conservatives' blatant wooing of Canadian Jews doesn't add up. What do they want from such a tiny, privileged group anyway?

Prime Minister Harper wants to win the Electoral College votes in New York and Florida. Simple.

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Stephen Harper

Not a leader.

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Priorities

I read this headline this morning: Swine Flu Is Widespread in 46 States as Vaccines Lag . The Americans have declared a national emergency. Meanwhile, Stephen Harper is busy unveiling statues to dead hockey bureaucrats; our local vaccination programme is more than a week away; and my own son is sick with the flu. Is it me, or do our Prime Minister's priorities seem a bit off? He has lots of time to visit Tim Horton's and talk hockey, but when he's not casting doubt about the idea of vaccinations, he is ignoring the problem altogether.

Harper has gotten away with this laissez-faire attitude so far, but if the death toll starts to climb, I suspect we will see lots of pretty pictures of Mr. Harper wearing a white coat, on his web site and we will hear more rumours about Mr. Ignatieff's leadership. Because as we all know, this government is about electing a majority, not actually running the country.

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Mr. Emerson, Your Senate Seat Is Waiting

From today's Globe and Mail:

On Friday, Mr. Harper would not rule out appointing an unelected person into his cabinet.

The writer of the article thinks it's about Quebec, but I think it all about getting the only half-sentient cabinet minister Harper had, back in cabinet. Just because a guy is two-faced and can't pass the democracy test, that's not a bar. It's a requirement.

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