- Get a load of our "Conservative" Government. Gee, we knew you were nasty and evil, but we thought you were manipulative micro-managing geniuses. Get it in gear. We're disappointed in you.
Either you have evidence of Canadian prisoners being handed over for torture and execution, or you don't. Either there are cases under investigation or there aren't, either there are allegations or there aren't. Either you have Public Security and Defense Ministers that you actually talk to, or you don't.
More after the fold.
This has not been a good week for the "Conservatives"
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Also yesterday, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day revealed that Corrections Canada officers in Kandahar had heard at least two first-hand allegations of torture.
After a week of denying knowledge of any "specific" claims of abuse, Day said, in response to a reporter's question, "Yes, they have actually talked to detainees about the possibility if they were tortured or not.
"They actually had a couple of incidents where detainees said they were."
Day couldn't say when the allegations came to light or if the detainees had been captured by Canadians. Nor did he say if Canada followed up the charges.
The government has been under fierce pressure in the last week after media reports that some prisoners nabbed by Canadians have been abused after being transferred into the custody of Afghan security forces.
But again yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper cast doubt on the reports.
"For a long time there have been vague allegations. We need specific evidence," Harper said in question period.
Hey, Stevie, why doncha take that shovel that you've been using to spread the horse-hockey, and start looking for - I dunno - some facts, like specific evidence before you open your pie-hole?
Last week Harper was lambasting the Grits for daring to suggest that there was anything to this story. Now we hear from members of his cabinet that, er, there was something to this story...
Specific evidence???? Isn't that what the Inspector General or other Cabinet appointees are tasked with finding?
Do your job, Harper - who do you think you are, a Bush?
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- Raspberries again to the styled and primped Bag o' Crap (TM) we have as PM.
Environment Minister John Baird unveiled the plan last Thursday, calling it the most aggressive crackdown on industrial pollution in the world. But at a weekend show for green consumer products in Toronto, Baird found himself confronted by environmentalist David Suzuki - who labelled the plan a major disappointment.
Baird’s plan was further lambasted by former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, who called it a fraud designed to mislead Canadians.
However, on Monday, Harper said the plan would succeed where the previous Liberal government failed after making "pie-in-the-sky promises" but doing nothing to stop greenhouse gas emissions from rising by more than 35 per cent above the target it agreed to under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
"You have to balance environmental progress while preserving jobs," Harper said in the Commons. "That’s what the minister of the environment has done. He’s taking the tough decisions that they (the Liberals) didn’t have the guts to take."
Who is this gentle stranger they call the Algore?
Why do we have an Environment Minister who thinks its his job to argue with environmentalists and think like an Economic Development Minister?
How did we get in this handbasket and where the heck are we going?
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- There are rumors that the Toronto Make-Beliefs Captain Mats Sundin may have a career ending hip injury. Without Mats, how the hell will the Leafs miss the playoffs next year?
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- Thank God for Joey Slinger do yourself a favour - check out his reality based snark on looneys (dollars and US spies both).
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- Congrats to Justin Trudeau for getting the nomination in Papineau Riding. I once went out with a woman whose next door neighbour was the daughter of the Chilean consul in Montreal. We always knew when Pierre Trudeau was out of town because Justin would pull up in the driveway. We always knew when Pierre was back in town cuz Justin would high-tail it out of there. Hope to god he has his mother's sensitivity and his father's brains, cuz it would be tragic if it were the other way around.
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40 more days of school (not including weekends or PA days, but including 3 days of school trips and 6 days of mandatory government testing.
Not that I'm counting.
Life is good.