The Maple Leaf Election

So nobody seems to know what this election is about? Well, let's make it about listeriosis and Maple Leaf Foods.
Do Canadians want a government which will thoughtlessly risk their lives in order to cut government expenditures? If so, I guess you vote for Harper. If not, then vote Liberal.

Yeech!

The machines at the Maple Leaf plant were filthy:

While the machines were cleaned daily at the plant prior to the outbreak, the whistleblower suggested daily cleaning procedures were not consistently followed or thorough enough.
The Maple Leaf worker also claimed a shoestring night staff only manages to clean "what they see" and the production line where the recalled corned and roast beef were handled was not always cleaned thoroughly.
"They clean the surface, but not underneath. You can see the dust and meat sitting on it," he said.
For thorough sanitization, the slicing machines should have been occasionally disassembled and deep cleaned, the worker insisted.
"They should get a flashlight and look inside. It was terrible -- leftover meat -- the smell," he said, recalling what happened when workers did completely disassemble the machines this week.
What they found inside were the gritty, pasty remains of leftover meat.
"We used so much chlorine to kill the bacteria, my eyes were burning," he said.

Not an appetizing image, is it? But already, the cover-your-ass spin is starting -- the news story continues:

It is not clear whether the federal government requires meat processing equipment to be regularly disassembled and thoroughly cleaned as part of normal procedures.

I don't care whether there are federal regulations requiring this or not, Canadian meat processors should be doing it anyway.
I absolutely hate this kind of corporate excuse -- that something is OK because the government hasn't passed a law against it. Because out of the other side of their mouth, they're complaining about how too much government regulation is hampering profitability and industry should be allowed to police itself and blah blah blah.
And then we get a Conservative government which actually listens to that corporate tripe.
And then we get eleven deaths and counting.

That was then, this is now

The Globe and Mail has a photo feature which isn't actually about photos, but rather about words -- its all the things the Conservatives said in 2006 and 2007 when they passed the law about fixed election dates -- you know, Stephen Harper's promise to Canadians that he wouldn't do exactly what he is now doing, calling a politically expedient election.
Here are some of the words said then:

This kind of manipulation unnecessarily derails important government and parliamentary business and gives rise to cynicism among voters. - Jay Hill
Canadians will benefit from knowing exactly when these fixed elections will occur so they can plan their lives and the businesses around it. It improves governance by removing power from the prime minister's office and devolving it to the people, as it should be. - Russ Hiebert
Never again will the government of the day be able to play around with the date of an election for its own crass political motives. - Peter Van Loan
The increased electoral fairness through Bill C-16 ... will ensure that elections occur once every four years, not when the prime minister chooses to call them based upon whether his or her party is high in the polls. That was a terrible wrong. It was abused by the previous government repeatedly. This initiative will ensure that it is not abused again. - Scott Reid

Maybe their constituents will remind them of these words, during the coming campaign.

Great line of the day

Taylor Marsh on Sarah Palin:

There's a lot of talk now about sexist language and judgments being leveled, with terms, phrases and graphics judged inappropriate. It's not sexist to call the selection of Sarah Palin what it is. She was chosen on purely gender terms, her looks, and her personality, along with her hard reactionary right wing views, so John McCain could buy the presidency through the pulpit wing of the Republican Party. That's how she will be judged around here. Sarah Palin is the Miss Vice President candidate, nothing more. She has been tapped to be Miss Republican 2008.

Emphasis mine.

Shaking our heads

I wonder if Americans realize how closely their presidential election is being followed around the world. And I wonder if Americans realize how pathetic the Republican party has now shown itself to be.
When McCain sends his beer heiress wife to Georgia, and then when she comes home she argues that the eye-candy political neotype chosen by her husband for VP is "ready to lead" because Alaska is geographically closer to Russia than California is, well, its all so ridiculous that the rest of the world is just shaking its head. The Republicans are willing to give control of their country to people like Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin?
Pathetic.

"I was there"

This is the most amazing story of the Obama speech:

. . . We were in the lesser rungs of the print media section, which meant sitting behind the CNN and ABC booths, with only a peephole sized spot through which we could get a glimpse of the podium. . . . [we noticed] the folks inside CNN's booth -- the techs and crew that helped the booth operate. At the moment Obama began speaking, even though they were sitting behind CNN's own cameras, they produced their personal cameras, help them up and started to take pictures. The same thing happened next door at the ABC booth, and at CBS, and around the curve at FOX. Each of these people was there to do a job, but they realized they were witnessing history, and they wanted to connect with it in a personal way. They wanted an image of their own to mark the occasion -- something they could look at and say "I was there, I was really there, the day Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech."

Obama's acceptance speech may become one of those cultural events where, in ten years or twenty years, people still talk about the experience of hearing it.

Yes, he actually is The One

What a marvelous speech given by the next US president, Barak Obama.
Tweety was overcome -- he started babbling about how the whole tone of the campaign has been elevated and how Democrats and Republicans could put the politics of division and smear behind them and how everyone could join together in national conversation about life, the universe and everything that really matters to people.
And ponies. Don't forget the ponies.
Ain't gonna happen of course, because the Republicans are going to start whispering Did You Know Obama Is A Ni...? and so much for elevating the tone.
But it was a nice moment, and demonstrated exactly why Obama should be elected -- America needs him to bring out the best in themselves.

Risking lives to save a buck

The Conservatives thought the only risk to eliminating meat inspections would be in the area of "communications" -- in other words, that the stupid public wouldn't like it.
The risk of people dying so the government could save a few bucks didn't seem to be a factor in their decision-making.
Allison provides a copy of last November's Treasury Board memo which supported the elimination of on-site meat inspections. The idea was to allow industry "to implement food safety control programs and to manage key risks." But Vic Toews and the rest of the Treasury Board brain trust must have been impressed with the opportunity to save a million dollars this year, and three millions a year after that. The Treasury Board memo says, in the usual pompous governmentese:

In addition to the reallocation proposals announced in the Budget [ie, the ones we were told about], Treasury Board Ministers also supported the proposal shown in Annex B [ie, the ones we were NOT told about. This is where eliminating meat inspections is described] however, the announcement of these reallocations has been deferred owing to significant communications risks and to allow for further policy and communications work to be completed."

The Conservatives fired the food scientist who sent this memo to the union. Without his brave action, Canadians might have believed Health Minister Tony Clement's pious declaration that:

"When it comes to health and safety, you can't scrimp and save; you've got to do your job on behalf of Canadians and that's what we're doing."

Instead, as Allison points out:

What you're doing is privatizing food safety ... and lying about it.

Move on

I think it's time for self-important pundits and pseudo-feminists to STOP bitching about Hillary Clinton. Please!
Hey, maybe we should start an organization and we could call it "Move On"...

Georgians as Underpants Gnomes

Edstock at Galloping Beaver links to this great post by the War Nerd who asks what in the world Georgia was thinking would happen when it invaded South Ossetia:

. . . Most likely the Georgians just thought the Russians wouldn’t react. They were doing something they learned from Bush and Cheney: sticking to best-case scenarios, positive thinking. The Georgian plan was classic shock’n’awe with no hard, grown-up thinking about the long term. Their shiny new army would go in, zap the South Ossetians while they were on a peace hangover (the worst kind), and then…uh, they’d be welcomed as liberators? Sure, just like we were in Iraq. Man, you pay a price for believing in Bush. The Georgians did. They thought he’d help.

Reminded me of the Underpants Gnomes business plan:

1. Collect underpants
2. ?
3. Profit

Hillary's message

Hillary give a barn-burner of a speech tonight, as even the commenters at Daily Kos agree. I thought Hillary included a very subtle message to Barak in her Harriet Tubmann story:

"When you hear the dogs, keep going."

There has been far too much backing down in recent Democratic presidential campaigns, Gore and Kerry both.
I will never forget, during the third debate with Gore and Bush, seeing Gore give a shamefaced chuckle and virtually apologize to Bush for "inventing the Internet".
Now Barak is being told to do this as well -- like just a week ago, some pundit at the New Republic said Barak shouldn't hold public appearances in front of large crowds anymore because the Republicans would attack his "celebrity". And during this convention, apparently some of the commentators are saying Barak has to tone down the attacks on McCain because after all it will just result in McCain getting mad (like, what is he, the Incredible Hulk?)
The message from Hillary was, ignore the baying dogs and just keep going.
Maybe now Barak will even have the guts to enlist the best campaigner in the Democratic Party, Bill Clinton, in his campaign!

Oh, for crying out loud!

This is the kind of stuff that happens when people get the idea that they can express their personal prejudices when they're on the job.

Passive-aggressive

Strange wording for this CBC news story about Harper calling an election

The CBC's Keith Boag, covering Harper's news conference in Ottawa, said Tuesday's comments marked the first time Harper has been direct in answering questions about the possibility he will call an election.
Harper didn't say an election would depend on what Dion decides, or on any other conditions, as he has in past news conferences.
"The prime minister is not trying to be coy about it in any way at all anymore," Boag said. "He more or less accepted that an election is going to happen."
"When the prime minister himself is talking that way, you can pretty much take it to the bank that he's made up his mind that he'll have to call an election very, very soon."

Emphasis mine.
Note the passive wording, as though calling an election is not Harper's decision.
But it is, entirely and completely his own decision. And he is breaking is own law to do it. None of the opposition parties are forcing this -- except that they just will not stop winning byelections or holding hearings into the In-and-Out scam and the Bernier scandal, even though Harper has asked them really nicely.
Oooh, those bastards! How dare they? Obviously, Canadians cannot expect Harper to follow his own law under such intolerable conditions!

Great line of the day

From Billmon:

...the Republican Party is essentially frozen at a moment in time -- roughly, 1972 (or at the latest, 1984). The politics of the culture war are all it knows, and, here in the twilight of its long ideological dominance, all it really wants to know. And maybe all it has left . . . The '60s culture war is gasping its last gasps, with McCain and his Rovian crew frantically trying to get one last bestial fuck out of the old sow before she lays down in the mud and dies.

This explains it

I was finding the lengthy and hysterical buildup to the Democratic VP pick to be more than a little tiresome, and I guess so was Lance Mannion. But in his usual perceptiveness, Mannion has now figured out why the Obama campaign did it this way:

All summer McCain and Obama have been playing chicken over their choices for VP, each waiting for the other to go first. If the game of chicken lasted long enough, Obama was going to have to go first, and that's what happened. But Obama found a way to win by going first. He kept the Media attention on his choice all this past week without giving McCain the opportunity to upstage him.
McCain can't make his announcement next week. There's no way he can force the attention away from the Democratic Convention unless he picks Hillary. Which means that, basically, he has to announce his choice as part of the routine business of the Republican Convention. Which means that either his Veep gets lost in the shuffle, or he (or she) upstages McCain himself.
Being upstaged is not something McCain allows.
So, what mattered this week wasn't who Obama's choice would or wouldn't be. In fact, I won't be surprised if we find out that it's been Biden all along. What mattered was that that's what everybody was talking about.