Scandalpedia

Hey, this is great -- a handy reference guide to Conservative screw-ups.

Pit bull debate

My sister and I have argued about the pit bull ban for years. She says its unfair to target a particular breed of dog when it is irresponsible, immature, or macho owners who are to blame. I say that's true, but governments have to do something to protect people, and banning the dogs also, in effect, bans this type of owner. I'm still not sure which of us is right on this one.

Who is this "Obama"? Anybody?

You know, when I check out the progressive blogs to find out what's going on, I can read all about what awful thing McCain did today, and I read all about some stupid thing Palin said today.
I am sick to death of reading about those two.
What I want to find out about is what Obama did today. And these posts are around but they're very hard to find.
Lambert has noticed this too.

Flailing around

For someone trying to present a blue-sweater image of calm and confident leadership, Stephen Harper is swinging a little wild.
He announces, out of the blue, that Canada is leaving Afghanistan -- a reversal of eight years of knee-jerk support which will be seen by the military and by the Conservative base as a betrayal. (Not surprisingly, the Conservatives look like they are now trying to withdraw the withdrawal.)
Then he flips out over the screw-up of one of his most loyal staffers (remember this? And this? And this?) And I ask again, how many incompetents have the Conservatives hired this time?
Well, obviously there are a few others, because somebody advised him to hide behind Jack Layton on the Elizabeth May issue, apparently not anticipating how frail a reed that would turn out to be.
Then he tries to float the argument that the Green Shift will provoke Quebec separatism.
Then he thinks he's going to stimulate the economy by cutting diesel taxes, even though this won't actually make much difference. Oh, and WWII veterans benefits are going to be reinstated. Big wow -- I guess that wraps up the 90-year-old vote.
And its only been six days since the election was called. Is there any kind of a plan here?
As some conservative blogger apparently said: "Dear Tory war room: you guys still want Harper to win, right?"

911 stories

At Firedoglake, Julia asks Where were you?

I went to the Citicorp Center, where there's a blood bank, and stood on line for seven hours waiting to give blood. There were hundreds of us. . . . After a while we started telling each other dumb jokes, mostly about tourists. A reporter from a major metropolitan newspaper chided us for not taking it Seriously enough. When the wind was right, all you could smell was burnt rubber. I was actually pretty grateful for that.
There was a lot of smoke.

I was jogging south on the East River path, about 62nd Street when the first plane hit. I saw an enormous plume of brown smoke blowing across the river farther south. Then scores of screaing sirens, all headed south.

The Chicago Tribune put out a special run for everybody in the neighborhoods we delivered too, I think even noncustomers got one. None of the drivers had got any sleep the donnut shop made money that night on coffee, and then we delivered the regular paper and the special one.

several of my co-workers were in NYC on 911 for the kick off of a new project…… they were trapped in the city for days…… they pooled their money, bought a used car and drove out……

I was acquainted via internet group with a woman who worked on the 97th floor, and she was still on the bus from NJ when it happened. She IM’d someone in the group that she was fine . . . My friend had moved to Alexandria, VA. Her grown children were on a plane and she was at Dulles to pick them up, when she got word that WTC and the Pentagon had been hit. Her kids landed minutes later. A doc/officer from our town was in the Pentagon but he went to the gift shop first so he was spared. He started the triage.

Great line of the day

From August J. Pollak

...the Republican platform for 2008 has essentially devolved into "let's be assholes."

Promises, promises

So Harper has announced a fixed date for leaving Afghanistan.
Hmm. A fixed date -- now what does that remind me of...?

What would Hillary do?

I think the Obama campaign should adopt as their guideline

What would Hillary do?

I think it is quite likely, in response to something as stupid as the lipstick flap, that Hillary would have said something like this:

Pig in lipstick. I meant it any way they want to take it.
. . . McCain and Palin, their policies and their demeaning campaign are A PIG IN LIPSTICK.
They are OLD FISH IN A NEW WRAPPER.
They are a threat to our future. Because they are the past, masquerading as the future.
You want to go backward -- vote for them

I Joined Liblogs

So Jason Cherniak emailed me to ask why I joined Liblogs and this is what I replied:

Oh, I've been a liberal for a long time, and finally realized I should join Liblogs to make sure I can keep up with what the other liberal bloggers are saying.
I do believe this is a very important election -- for one thing, it is crucial that Harper not get a majority, plus I would love to see what Dion could achieve as Prime Minister.
I supported him in the leadership race, but since then I have been disappointed that his instincts just don't seem to be sufficiently political. And he should have given top priority to improving his English, particularly to developing (or having somebody write for him) vivid and assertive "soundbites" which he could be using to explain his policies and priorities .
But I have great hope, now that the campaign is finally here, that he will bear down and start being a politician. Signs are good so far, I think -- his speeches have been good, and the townhall the other day in Edmonton apparently went over very well. So I thought maybe if I can follow the campaign more closely through the Liberal bloggers, I can light my own little candle for him and for the Liberals.

See the Liblogs listing on my blogroll -- there are more of us every day.
And I think Dion is already hitting them out of the infield. Here's the latest example, which made Jane Taber describe Stephane Dion as Hot:

[Dion] finally found a way to explain his so-called green shift plan.
At a rally in Napanee, Ont., Mr. Dion said that some people have called the plan complicated. “It's very simple. I will give you the Liberal plan in six words, you will see: Cut income taxes, shift to pollution.”
He then challenged Conservative leader Stephen Harper to explain his environmental plan in six words. “Okay, okay 10 words. Thirty words? No, no I will help him. In two words: No plan.”

See how great this is? This is exactly what I was talking about. Harper must be feeling sort of gobsmacked right about now.

Dumb staff

So Puffin-gate was all the fault of another Conservative staffer. My question is, how many dumb staffers have the Conservatives hired this time?
By the way, Scott Tribe has been on fire lately in covering all the breaking election stories -- great stuff!

Hurricane America

From James Howard Kunstler:

McCain-Palin have nowhere to go now but down, and I will tell you exactly how this will happen. They can run away from President Bush, but they can't run away from the Republican Party. The Republicans will be regarded from now on as 'the party that wrecked America.' Over the weeks ahead, as carnage in the economy and the financial markets ramps up, it will become increasingly clear.

And James Carville actually said something sensible along the same lines -- "It's the economy, stupid" rises again.
I wonder if Harper can run fast enough in this election campaign to escape blame for the damage from Hurricane America, which apparently is going to drown the US economy. Canada would get soaked as well, perhaps also swamping any chance to implement Dion's Green Shift. Interestingly, this was described by Ottawa Citizen columnist Susan Riley as a brave, far-sighted idea:

...if [Dion] goes down, he will take his much-ridiculed and only partly understood Green Shift with him. That will be a catastrophic missed opportunity.
For all its intricacies, the Green Shift amounts to a straight-forward revolution in the way we are taxed; in what we, as a country, reward and what we discourage. It may be the boldest, most transformative policy advanced by a major Canadian party since free trade.

If Harper gets reelected, however, we'll be swirling down the US drain.

Disconnect

So Harper thinks this election is going to be nasty because those other guys are all going to be very, very mean to our Stevie.
As Dunkler said:

Are. You. Kidding. Me?
This from the guy who's been running personal attack adds against the opposition leader since day 1? This from the guy who last year said that the Opposition party and it's leader cared more about the Taliban than Canadian soldiers.
Are those the kind of personal attacks you're referring to, Prime Minister Harper?

Following the Karl Rove principle, we can anticipate that Harper will immediately launch a series of vicious smear attacks against Dion, Layton, Dion, Duceppe, Dion, and May.

Great line of the day

TBogg :

History repeats itself in a distaff way.
Dan Quayle was an empty suit.
Sarah Palin is a stuffed bra.

Great line of the day

From Sam Harris' article in the LA Times, Palin: average isn't good enough:

McCain has so little respect for the presidency of the United States that he is willing to put the girl next door (soon, too, to be a grandma) into office beside him. He has so little respect for the average American voter that he thinks this reckless and cynical ploy will work.
And it might.

Be careful what you wish for

This election is happening because Harper wants his majority government and he thinks he's going to get it.
While adopting the appearance of supreme confidence, the Harper Conservatives are throwing money around like drunken sailors and making promises to leave Afghanistan. They're so desperate to get Maple Leaf foods off the front pages that they're promising an inquiry -- yeah, I'm sure that'll happen, just as soon as they finish the Mulroney one. And their website is chock full of stories about how awful they think Dion's green shift is.
But they shouldn't underestimate Dion. Though Harper is more popular than he was, and than I think he should be, Canadians still just don't trust the Conservatives.
We trust Dion and support Liberalism in general. At today's Liberal town-hall campaign opener in Edmonton, Dion came out swinging:

"We are all playing, all of us, we are in the game," he said. "If we fight, and if we fight well, with Ken Dryden as our goalie, we will win....
"Don't waste your time looking at polls going up and down."
After a town hall-style meeting - in which he went to work on explaining how the green tax shift will benefit Canadians in general and Albertans in particular - Dion said he envisions the Liberal campaign as a series of such meetings with Canadians across the country.
"We are everywhere, as you have seen," he said.
And, he slipped in references to the way Prime Minister Stephen Harper has handled the media since coming to power in 2006.
"I am here, working without a safety net, answering any questions Canadians have to ask," Dion said. "I want this election to be a big town hall where we will discuss what's best for this country."
He also questioned, again, Harper's decision to call an election short of a fixed date in 2009.
"He gives a bad example to Canadians by not respecting his own law," Dion said.

Boris went to see Dion and gives us this report:

Dion spoke for about an hour, beginning with a short and clear campaign type speech to much applause, followed by a long question and answer period with the audience. The prelims introduced the Edmonton area Liberal candidates, and Dion's opener was all about the Green Shift. This is clearly the major policy issue they'll run on.
Overall, he appeared confident, well spoken, most definitely passionate, and approachable. I'd say handled himself very well, standing in utter contrast to the character assassinations coming from the Cons, let alone Harper as a person dead fish crooked pine 2x4. Definitely an A grade on form . . .
I made the comment to a friend afterwards that I was left wanting to corner Dion and pick his brain over coffee or beer. If he can stimulate that sort of interest in the broader public, perhaps he's on to something.

Harper has been listening to the polls telling him how popular he is, but as Jack Knox points out, the public mood isn't particularly positive for this election -- in fact, people are annoyed that Harper is pushing it:

...an election now is like going to the mailbox and finding a notice from your dentist saying it's time to get your teeth cleaned. You look at the notice and go, "Already? I thought I didn't have to go again until October 2009." That's when we were supposed to vote under Harper's fixed-date election legislation, the law that was supposed to free the process from political manipulation.
But the Conservative guy on the CBC show said no, no, another election campaign might be like going to the dentist, but we have to do it because Parliament is so dysfunctional. I guess he's right, if by dysfunctional you mean no one party having enough votes to do anything wingnuttish without the others taking away the car keys until the government sobers up.
Indeed, the Conservatives keep repeating to us that Canadians seem to like minority governments and that the forthcoming election is likely to breed another one. Super. Then let's keep the one we've got. It's only two years old, barely has the motor broken in, doesn't even have a dent. (Don't worry about that Bernier-Couillard business; it will buff right out.)

But since we're being forced to make a trade, maybe we'll go for a different model.