Oh, dear

Sounds like Stephen Harper had another terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week.

Sunday morning cartoons

From the Giving Up Smoking group at Daily Kos, some Far Sides including two I had never seen before:

Cargo cult conservatives

John Cole thinks conservatives have become cargo cults:

How do you have a sensible policy debate with people who reject basic facts? It’s like trying to debate members of a cargo cult- the modern GOP carry the crosses but have no idea what it means to be christian. They talk about free markets, but have no understanding of economics. Just say deregulate and tax cuts a lot, and MAGIC WILL HAPPEN. Evolution? LIES! Climate change? LIES! Modern Medicine and vaccines? LIES! KEEP GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY MEDICARE! That scooter just magically showed up from the scooter store, like a coca cola bottle from heaven!
The cargo cult analogy is closer than many of us are comfortable admitting, and our media has decided to just cover their eyes and pretend that it’s just two sides of the same coin. It’s crazy.

UPDATE: And I notice Rick Perry is proving the adage that it's better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Pfffft!

Hubris already? Colour me unsurprised!
MacKay:

Defence Minister Peter MacKay used one of only three search-and-rescue helicopters available in Newfoundland to transport him from a vacation spot last year, CTV News has learned.

Dechert

In an apparent attempt to dodge reporters, Dechert on Wednesday arrived for the daily question period through a loading dock entrance at the back of the Centre Block. He was dropped off by someone driving a minivan.

Flaherty:

Parliament Hill was buzzing Tuesday over news that Ottawa hired management consulting firm Deloitte Inc. to advise the cabinet and senior officials on how to erase the federal deficit by 2014-15. The Aug. 15 contract is worth up to $19.8-million. Because it only runs until March 31, its cost works out to about $90,000 a day.

The session is three whole days old.
And here's the guy they all once thought would do such a great job on setting a Conservative agenda for Toronto:

Mayor Rob Ford has talked the talk on the need for budget cuts. He declined to walk the walk when he had the opportunity on Tuesday morning.
In a significant concession to public opposition and to queasy council allies, Ford voted at the end of a 20-hour executive committee meeting to reject some proposed cuts and to put off decisions on almost all of the others to the 2012 budget process, which begins in November and ends in mid-January.

So after a lot of people went through a lot of misery, in the end Ford deflated like a pricked balloon.

Margo Martindale wins an Emmy

For her brilliant role on a brilliant show Justified:

Exceptionalism

Sometimes I find if very hard to understand Americans.

Why wouldn't they take this man's death seriously? Do they really believe that "you can just go to the emergency room" to get healthcare? Are they so terribly afraid of giving something "free" to supposedly "undeserving" people -- blacks, latinos, poor people -- that they won't set up their own health care system so it can care for their own citizens?
I hear a lot of chat about American exceptionalism -- well, I certainly hope so. I hope this callous attitude is not the norm among civilized nations.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

UPDATE: From Roy:

Forget the Gettysburg Address, forget even "Tear down this wall"; the progress of the modern Republican Party is the progress from "You lie!" to "Let him die!

Your lying eyes

Alison has posted a brilliant Colbert Report video about the 9/ll conspiracy theory.
Basically, we have always been at war with East Asia.

Update: corrected -- thanks, Purple, I hadn't read Alison's reference correctly.

Shooting themselves in the foot?

If the NDP pick Brian Topp for their new leader, a man who has never run for public office, are they shooting themselves in the foot?
Well... yesterday he compared himself to Brian Mulroney.
Yes, that will be a winning message, won't it.

Perspective. Now you have it

Twenty-one-million years ago, a star exploded, turned spectacular, and faded out. And we are now watching it go.

Sorry

Echo seems to be eating my comments tonight -- hopefully it will fix itself by tomorrow.

911 stories

I dreaded the media approach to the tenth anniversary of 9/11 because in 2001 it took me weeks to stop seeing the towers fall every time I closed my eyes.
And I am now getting increasingly snitty about how we mis-remember that day -- I read about "seeing the first tower hit" when there was actually no real-time coverage at all of that terrible moment -- videos of the first hit were accidental, and were not found and broadcast until hours or days later. Even the TV coverage I saw of the second hit was from across the river, so it wasn't very clear at first what had happened.
And I am also now getting increasingly worried about how our politicians continue to use the attack as an excuse to abuse our civil rights and drive a religious wedge between east and west.
But, in spite of all that, there are some amazing stories now being told about courage, fortitude and sacrifice on that day:
F-16 pilot was ready to give her life on Sept. 11

The story behind the Falling Man photo

The hated, the hater and 9/11

Mexican firefighter ran into the twin towers

World Trade Centre survivor emerged from wrecked tower, but never left it behind

9/11 Remembered

and 9/11 rescue dogs

They're baaaaak!

27-7 in the Labour Day Classic. Good on ya, boys.

Great line of the day

Its a beautiful fall day here today, and my husband described it this way:

It lets us know that God hasn't forgotten us just yet.

Unprecedented?

The Toronto Police Board has taken the "unprecedented" step of refusing to promote nine officers who had removed their name tags during the G20 protests in June of 2010.
Well, arresting and jailing a thousand Canadians without cause was unprecedented, too.
Tit for tat.

Go here for the photos from the G20 Justice website showing Toronto police without name badges.

How refreshing!

Stephen Harper's new spokesperson Angelo Persichilli has vowed to treat Quebeckers with "utmost respect".
Well, that will be a nice change from his former approach, and I'm sure Quebecers will deeply appreciate it.