Waiting for another shoe to drop

I guess it's not surprising that the Prime Minister's Office is now blaming "the media" for the stimulus funding scandal. Steve V points out:

What it suggests is the PMO is becoming exacerbated, they're lashing out because they're losing the public relations battle. The arguments are starting to bite, and it's getting under their skin.

We should have expected all this, really. This is the gang that couldn't shoot straight.
The Cons never had any real commitment to resolving Canada's economic problems, nor are they capable of doing so. First there was the economic update last November, showing such contemptuous and cynical ineptitude that Harper's government almost fell. Then they were dragged kicking and screaming to the "stimulus" table in January, so to speak. It's not surprising to discover they again took the cynical and contemptuous approach, just shovelling money to their own ridings, because they never really had a grip on where the money should be spent to improve the Canadian economy nor how to go about spending it for the best effect.
I wonder if there is another shoe going to drop before this is done?

Cheney as Dracula

Congressman Alan Grayson talks about Dick Cheney on Hardball yesterday:

. . . I have trouble listening to what he says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he‘s talking.
But—but my response is this. He's just angry because the president doesn't shoot old men in the face. Oh, by the way, when he was done speaking, did he just then turn into a bat and fly away?

Peeking through the curtains?

Stop gushing, John. Its just embarrassing.

Shorter

Shorter reports about paying the Taliban not to attack:

Nice little occupation you've got here, Canada. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.

What about Saskatchewan?

Canadian Press has a story about what every province is doing about swine-flu vaccine except for Saskatchewan and Newfoundland.
Doesn't surprise me -- even if you follow the news every day, its been hard to figure out what plan Saskatchewan has for swine flu inoculations.
There was a news story the other day which reported in shocked tones that more than 60 per cent in Saskatchewan didn't plan to get vaccinated -- well, I'm in that group and its because I had the distinct impression that nobody WANTED to vaccinate me because I'm not in one of the designated at-risk groups (pregnant, old-and-sick, young, remote).
I would happily get vaccinated if I can. But can I?
Sask Health yesterday posted a press release that says I can get a flu shot after Nov. 16.
Somewhere. Sometime. Maybe.
If they have enough doses.

Just like good old whats-his-name

Pity the poor Conservatives -- they're desperately trying to deny the sleaziness of slapping the Conservative logo on government cheques by saying that Chretien did it too (even though he didn't)
Oops.

Nearly four years ago, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives came to power on one promise: that he and they were nothing like Jean Chrétien and his Liberals, that he and they were different, better. And here, nearly four years later, was John Baird, one of Mr. Harper’s most trusted ministers, wrapping himself in ideals of a man who represented everything the Prime Minister once despised, making Mr. Chrétien’s words his own.

So maybe they should have used some OTHER former prime minister for justification.
Hmm, lets see .. who can we think of? Well, how about Paul Martin? Nope, he didn't send out federal cheques with Liberal logos. Maybe Trudeau? Or Joe Clark? Or Kim Campbell? Well, no, they never did anything like this either.
Oh, I know -- how about that Mulroney fellow? Maybe today's Conservatives could remind Canadian voters about HIS ethics....
Oops.

Memo to Joe Torre

When your pitcher throws five pitches, and the first four give the Phillies a base on balls and the fifth one hits the next batter, put a fork in that pitcher, he's toast.
If you leave him in, its going to cost you the game.

Hmmm...

What does this story remind me of?

How much do smoke and mirrors cost these days?

Over $100,000.

Great line of the day

On Rabble, Fred Wilson talks about the pension fallout of the Nortel collapse and the upcoming pension negotiations for workers at AbitbiBowater:

. . .There are 30,000 workers and pensioners in this company’s pension plans which at the end of 2008 were $1.3 billion in deficit. Without a government solution, these key labour negotiations and the fate of these pensioners will be like a fast moving truck hitting a large stone wall.

Emphasis mine.
As I get older, the pension issue is rapidly getting nearer and dearer to my heart.
We baby boomers always did believe that about the time we all started to retire, the pension systems would run out of money. Oh, well, there's always Walmart, I guess:


Walmart Elvis image by Shane McDermott via Bill Doskoch

Go. Away.

Is everyone else having as much fun as I am watching the NFL owners tell Rush Limbaugh to go Cheney himself? Thers sums it up

Sniveling about the relative morality of why they're deciding this is absurd. He's bad for business, period. And why? Because of his fucking incessant racial axe-grinding, that's why. Whether or not he's a racist truly deep down, who gives a fuck? His business model involves race-baiting for fun and profit, and the NFL has different ideas: he had his chance to play by NFL rules, and he fucked it up royally.
Rush Limbaugh adds no value to the NFL, but carries significant risks, because he genuinely is liable to spout off like a loon at any minute about race or anything else. That's what he does. And that's all he does. . . .
It's about you being a douche who nobody likes, and how nobody in the country wants you and your shit fucking up football.
Go. Away. We. Are. Trying. To. Watch. The. Game. You. Shithead.

Great line of the day

Josh Marshall speculates about the real reason for today's Boy in the Balloon story:

outside the box bit of guerrilla marketing for new Where the Wild Things Are movie

The stupid, it burns

Sorry, Arianna, but is just stupid to say that Joe Biden should resign if Obama doesn't follow his advice on Afghanistan.
Its too bad to see Huffington Post decline into irrelevancy, but that's the direction they've been going lately -- while Talking Points Memo is rapidly becoming a much more thoughtful and comprehensive news aggregator and commentary site.

The worsening

Remember how, during the Bush administration, things always turned out to be worse than they first appeared? It was an amazing phenomena, whereby nobody ever seemed to get a grip on anything or learn on the job or gradually improve or anything. From the Katrina response to the attorneys scandal to the Iraq War, from Social Security privatization to immigration reform to sending a man to Mars, everything started out as a mess and invariably descended into a complete cock-up.
Well, I think we are now observing the same phenomenon with the Harper Conservatives.
However bad you thought a Conservative program or initiative or idea might be to start with, it invariably seems to get worse.
Take, for example, Harper's stimulus program. This program started out last December as an Economic Update that was so resoundingly cynical and inadequate that the Harper government almost fell. So then they brought in the stimulus program, and they couldn't possibly screw that up too, could they? Why, yes -- yes they could. Steve V writes:

this stimulus initiative has turned into a farce that borders on complete scandal.

What did we expect?

UPDATE: See what I mean?



Rimshot, please!

Great post of the day

The Booman asks Can I Vent? Why, yes, you certainly can:

Yesterday was probably the most embarrassing day yet for the progressive blogosphere during the short reign of the Obama administration . ,. . As soon as he won the presidency, you started bitching about his appointments. As soon as he became president, you started bitching about his messaging, his framing, his agenda, and his lack of deference to your opinion. I want to know where the point was in this process when Obama was supposed to conclude that you were his allies and that you were responsible for his victory. . . .
You call him a warmonger, but he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. He ends torture and allows his Attorney General to investigate it, and you call him a torturer. He tries to enact health care reform with a robust public option and you accuse him of seeking every opportunity to sell-out to the insurance industry. He bails out the cratering financial services industry and prevents a second Great Depression, and you accuse him of selling his soul to corporate CEO's. I'm not saying that all of these criticisms lack validity. I'm not saying that people shouldn't advocate for the things they care about passionately. I just want to know where you get the fucking idea that an anonymous White House staffer who gets asked about all this criticism would feel obligated to show you deference and respect.

I have been increasingly upset by the negative, carping tone which some supposedly progressive bloggers are adopting in talking about Obama -- its always fun to be snarky, I know, but its just a Republican frame to call him an empty suit, all talk no walk, egotist, and the like. I'm glad Booman has started calling this out.
UPDATE: A Booman commenter lists what Obama HAS done in the last nine months:

1)Passed a stimulus act that pulled us back from the brink of an honest-to-God Great Depression II.
2)Passed the Ledbetter act that corrected an unbelievable injustice in employment discrimination law.
3)Pulled more concessions from Iran than Bush got in 8 years of senseless saber-rattling.
4)Increased the minimum wage, sorely needed by the workers in this country who currently have lower real wages than they did in 1970, even as our GDP has grown 18-fold.
5)Made it to the homestretch on the healthcare reform we've been trying to pass for 40 years.
6)Set a real timetable for getting out of Iraq.
7)Oversaw the killing of Al-Qaeda's top man in Pakistan and a host of other terrorist leaders.
8)Finally reworked our military budget from an ancient and ineffective cold-war focus to a high-tech-focused counterinsurgency tool...something Bush never even touched, even as his "war on terror" rhetoric reached a fever pitch.
9)Managed just enough threats against the banks that they've started repaying the TARP money Bush paid out.
10)Started the process of re-regulating the banking/insurance/investment industry for the first real time since the 1930's.
11)Begun placing Guantanamo prisoners elsewhere in preparation for closing the base.
12)Got the politics and pressure out of the Department of Justice.
13)Denounced torture and rescinded the absurd legal theories that allowed it.
14)Threaded the needle on unrest in Iran.
15)Dramatically modernized White House communications and technology, improving the flow of information to the public.
16)Started over 2500 highway projects, with bidding so fierce that the costs are below expectations and should allow even more projects than expected.
17)Created a $2500 tuition tax credit to help shore up our woeful debt-burden on families.
18)Reworked our student loan programs to great improvement.
19)Created and started execution of a plan to save the auto industry. (All you people screaming about 9.8% unemployment should stop and think what it would be if GM and Chrysler had been allowed to fail as prescribed by conservative economics.)
20)Stabilized Pakistan with $5B in aid.
21)Created the Office of Urban Policy and reversed Bush cuts to inner-city anti-gang/anti-gun policies, policies experts say are instrumental in reducing crime.
22)Added over 2 million acres of Federally-protected wilderness.
23)Dramatically improved America's image abroad.

Oh, and appointed the first Hispanic justice to the Supreme Court. Now, you can quibble with the details here or there, but its patently untrue to say that Obama and his administration isn't getting anything done.