Sunday, June 30, 2013

Fakers


Fake F-35 mock up cockpit from Lockheed Martin for DefMin Peter Airshow MacKay to hold $47,000 presser in to announce purchase of 65 Lockheed Martin stealth fighters in 2010.
Tony Gazebo and Rona Ambrose attending.



Fake citizenship ceremony in which half of the participants were actually Citizenship and Immigration Canada staff passed off as new Canadians on Sun News Network





Fake lake, the $57,000 part of a $1.9 million display for the 2010 G8/20 summit, concerning which I asked some more questions earlier today.


Fake G8 border infrastructure slush fund that splashed $50M around Tony Gazebo's riding for gazebos and flower pots miles away from the border, and incidentally increased his vote margin win from 26 votes in 2006 to almost 11,000 in 2010.



Fake protesters made up of Conservative party interns and staff sent out by the PMO to heckle Justin Trudeau on the lawn of the House of Commons as he gave a presser announcing "new measures to increase transparency in the HoC." 



Fake apology to First Nations






Fake election phone calls, live and automated, presumably originating from the Cons' CIMS data base, either being obnoxious while pretending to be from an opposing party or advising voters their polling station had moved or closed.




Fake Jobs Grant from the same people who thought it was a super idea to grant businesses a 15% wage reduction pass NOT to hire Canadians. This new idea, which doesn't exist yet despite a recent Hockey Night in Canada ad blitz at $95,000 a pop, would again subsidize business while rolling back $300M from the provinces should they agree to hell freezing over.

Fake Commander-in-Chief shtick while surveying Alberta flood damage, 
and good lord, he's wearing fucking wings.
Unsurprisingly reminiscent of Bush photo op surveying Katrina.  Mr. Dress Up's spox explained it was "in tribute to the military".  
See Boris : last paragraph.

Fake CIDA "not", crayoled in at Bev Oda's request above the signatures of CIDA dept heads, making it look as if they, not she, had gutted KAIROS' funding from CIDA. After initially fudging about it, eventually she fessed up.
Meanwhile over in Israel, Jason Kenney told the Israelis he'd done it for them, then retracted it when he got back to Canada.


Fake security at the G20. $1-billion and 19,000 police unable to prevent a few black bloc from rioting but as protests wind down on the last day, kettling without first giving the crowd a chance to disperse nets many shoppers, media, and people returning home from work in the largest police bust in Canadian history. Public Safety Min refuses to divulge origin of command for police state crowd control exercise.


Fake 'red menace' scare. 
Steve, Airshow, MacKay, and PMO staffers make ridiculous remarks about bravely staring down Russian bombers in the Arctic. Meanwhile Canadian Forces are participating with those same Russian bombers in a Canada/US/Russia exercise in joint air traffic coordination in the Arctic. 
aka Fake justification for purchase of 65 F-35s.

 Fake "Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act", which made no mention at all of child pornography because up to an hour earlier this bid to require internet service providers to give police your name, unlisted phone #, and IP address without a warrant was called the Lawful Access Act.





Steve's fake outrage at Lib/NDP/Bloc coalition proposal - with separatists! and socialists! - following the 2011 election.
Following the 2004 election, Harper himself proposed a Con/NDP/Bloc 'cooperation' with those same separatists and socialists to unseat the minority Libs.
In 2000, a proposed coalition of the Bloc, Alliance, and PC parties sought to make Stockwell Day Prime Minister of Canada.



Fake 'grassroots' website Ethical Oil
Alykhan Velshi left a six figure job with Steve's gov to relaunch Ezra Levant's Ethical Oil  -"mooching off free Wi-Fi at coffeehouses and wearing flip-flops” - after which he returned to the PMO fold. Con Resource Bureau-connected webserver Go New Clear hosts Ethical Oil, Jason Kenney, Joe Oliver, Kathryn Marshall, etc.

Faked support for abolishing StatsCan long census. 
MP Maxime Bernier claimed "thousands" of complaint emails per day during 2006 census, all unfortunately deleted, vs. the 22 recorded "expressions of concern" sent to StatsCan. 
When Tony Gazebo falsely claimed StatsCan support for abolishing long census, StatsCan chief Munir Sheikh at left resigned in protest.

Fake smaller government
The Cons' 2012 budget proposed slashing 19,000 positions from the federal public service over five years, but added more than 34,000 between 2006 and 2012 - a 14% increase.                                                                                            Additionally, a 2011 CCPA study discovered a shadow public service: "Over the past five years, federal personnel outsourcing costs have risen 79% ... and remain above $1 billion a year."
Fake emergency preparedness
"It's really just posing," Alberta Fire Chiefs Assoc. Pres. said, singling out fed politicians like SafetyMin Vic Toews showing up to "help out" Alberta flood victims after Cons' 2012 budget slashed federal funding for the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program. "They can just stay in Ottawa. They got in the way."


Fake "cooperation" with Elections Canada, including stonewalling on EC reports of election fraud 3 days before election,  'reviewing' Poutine logs at Responsive Marketing Group before ECcutting their budget, taking 3 months to not provide EC with witnesses, delaying promised election reforms, and in the words of Judge Richard Mosley : generally engaging in "trench warfare"


Dr. Dawg sees much of this as Conservative theatre.
I think they're just fakers always hoping not to get caught.

Feel free to add your own "faker" suggestions and links in comments - updating as they come in.

Video version on Youtube 
.

30 comments:

Beijing York said...

Fake PM military credentials:

http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/stephen-harper-helicopter.jpg

Fake Canada Job Grant ads:

http://www.mapleridgenews.com/opinion/letters/213040691.html

Anonymous said...

The biggest fake is all the lies harper told to get into office and then completely reversed once he got a majority vote, stolen, I might add.

Boris said...

There's a little part of me that would like to see, oh, a Hadfield or even the RCAF pilot flying the PM ask him in front of a mic about when he went to military flight school. Wings are a qualification badge, and someone sporting them who did not earn them is, I think, committing an offence no different than someone lying about their eduction or other training. I would love to see a legal opinion on this!

margaret resin said...

How about his fake hair. I hear taxpayers are on the hook for his expensive toupees.hedsfl

Holly Stick said...

Fake photo op. Yesterday morning Laureen Harper and a bunch of politicians wandered around some of Calgary's flood district helping pick up stuff and having the media photograph them.

The thing is some media have her working for two hours in Mission district. Really, based in various tweets, over about 2.5 hours she visted Erlton, then spent less than an hour in Mission, went to Roxboro and did mostly photo op there, and went to Elbow Park. After lunch she went to Airdrie and with a convoy of trucks to Morley, on Stoney Nakoda Reserve, and unloaded supplies there.

So she probably worked on cleanup at Erlton and Mission (and the media say they helped, as they had been invited to do) though I wonder how much actual work they did between posing for cameras. At Roxboro they ran into some locals who resented having their work disrupted by this travelling circus for a photo op, and one wrote about this at length. I don't know if they did cleanup at Elbow Park or just talked with people.

At Morley she apparently helped unload stuff, so good for her for going to one of the Reserves that was badly hit by the flooding.

There's nothing wrong with Laureen Harper talking with people, and if she helped with cleanup that's great; but the sycophantic BS about how hard she worked for 2 hours is fake, fake, fake.

On the other hand, she was there at least, but where is the other Harper who was actually elected to a Calgary riding? Not getting his hands dirty.

The main Roxboro story link is here:

https://twitter.com/canadiancynic/status/350286991352537088

see also:

https://twitter.com/softgrasswalker/statuses/350075820737429504

https://twitter.com/softgrasswalker/status/350074642356125698

Alison said...

Well that's odd - I left a comment here late last night and now I see it's gone.
Anyhow it was to thank BY for her suggestions/links which I added - thanks as ever, honeybun, and ...

Anon : Steve is a fake Conservative and that really pisses me off. Personally I look forward to becoming a conservative myself one day, once we have a living social contract worth conserving.

Boris : s.419 of the Criminal Code doesn't quite get at the 'earned' part you are pointing out but it looks sufficient.

Margaret : Toupees, really? I'm afraid the hair may be one of the real bits.

Holly : Thanks for keeping me up to date. I was also sent a link to this last night.
I sympathize with people objecting to having their personal disaster co-opted for a photo-op like that - the screwdriver bit was a nice touch, no? - and I'm sure the more
sycophantic media coverage of it today which I haven't seen was completely insufferable.
OTOH people cleaning up seemed heartened to see her there regardless and as you point out she did go to Morley.
Mixed feelings about this.
When a leader or celeb cuts a ribbon at a launch, no one thinks they personally built the ship.

Holly Stick said...

Here are 3 sycophantic articles/columns:

http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/06/26/canadian-prime-minister-stephen-harpers-wife-laureen-joins-calgary-flood-recovery-efforts

http://www.canada.com/opinion/columnists/Corbella+wife+puts+hard+labour+help+flood+victims/8584410/story.html

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/27/isnt-that-the-prime-ministers-wife-laureen-harper-pitches-in-for-calgary-flood-clean-up/

And Yahoo reports the controversy: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/prime-minister-wife-calgary-working-hard-hardly-working-191404377.html

The Roxboro woman @Diegirl has heard from someone else who refused to be used for a photo op:
https://twitter.com/kathyinairdrie/status/350400769524109313

I think the Yahoo article conclusionis well-put:

"...If you're going to offer to help, actually help and maybe leave the PR people at home.
Otherwise, you're going to have a lot of angry people who have more important things to deal with than politics and politicians."

Beijing York said...

OMG, I almost forgot CIDA's fake rejection of KAIROS funding with Bev Oda's hand written "Not"!

Alison said...

BY : Check

Holly : Nice that Corbella and the usual suspects have found their Eva Peron, but short of a PMO memo advising Teskey to go out and jerk off the masses, still not convinced Teskey doing PR or hefting supplies for any length of time qualifies as fake.

Holly Stick said...

The Scottish verdict of "Not proven" comes in handy. True, I guess the times on the tweets are not absolute proof of the time the photos were taken, though I think they were probably close.

I believe she was to be on Power & Politics last night talking about the flood.

Meanwhile Jason Kenney has been doing flood work and tweeting obnoxiously about "lefty nutters" critiicizing MPs for helping.

https://twitter.com/kenneyjason/status/350683663014428673

Holly Stick said...

My mistake, Laureen Harper was on The House, not Power & Politics: http://www.cbc.ca/thehouse/2013/06/29/laureen-harper-discusses-the-alberta-flood-clean-up-effort/

Beijing York said...

Alison, another fake moment. Was it Clement or Bernier that claimed there were thousands of Canadians complaining to Stats Can that the long form census was an invasion of privacy and it turned out there was only one or two e-mails (or that the long list had been mysteriously erased)? That was the fake reason for scrapping the long form census.

Holly Stick said...

"...“The federal government, they can just stay in Ottawa. They got in the way,” he said, singling out Towes, who visited High River on Wednesday.

“Coming into the site, it’s pretty hard to deal with those guys because they require a lot of resources to provide them security. Unless they’re directly in charge of the military and have a functional role, it’s really just posing.”..."

http://o.canada.com/2013/06/28/fire-chiefs-slam-cuts-to-emergency-preparedness-in-wake-of-prairie-flooding/

Alison said...

BY : Bernier claimed the 'thousands' of complaints; Clement claimed StatsCan support. Added with thanks.

Holly : Confess search strings on Creekside are running overwhelmingly to things like "Laureen fake help".
Remain intransigent ;-) but will read your links now...
Ok, compromise addition. ;-)

e.a.f. said...

Ah the fakening of it all. Yes it has been entertaining to see lauren fake helping but then having her fake spousal unit faking being concerned is wearing a little thin. It may be the fake p.r. people (propoganists) at the PMO know the fake p.m. isn't that loved by people so they send out the wife to fake it.

It might be better if only real people came in to help. Having those fake politicians in for their photo ops takes away from the work needed to be done.

Who wants to see a fake leader wearing a fake jacket? Bush got to wear the stuff because he was commander in chief. the P.M. of Canada is not commander in chief.

Now we all get to sit through a fake 1 July showing a p.m. who is just faking he loves this country.

Ah, lets not forget the fake concern for "honour killings". having the fake m.p. announce giving $200K for working against "honor Killings" is just another example of how fake it all is. If they really were concerned about murdering women for refusing to go along with family agendas, they would not have called it "honour killing"; they would have set aside at least $20M. and allocated funds for shelters for women who want to escape these very real situations of abuse. Oh well, the fake bimbo got her photo op and the taxpayers are out $200K. Probly went to one of those faked concerned slimer organizations.

Holly Stick said...

Oh, I don't have a problem with you not adding that to your already extensive faker list, because they did do some real work, though I think some media exaggerated it. And I approve of politicians showing up at events just to be a part of things, like Jason Kenney at the Treat 7 fundraiser last night.

But I do feel for the volunteers and for the fire chief in that article who don't want their work interrupted for PR.

It's just that when I start providing links about a topic, I tend to find more links to add for anyone who wants further information. Bad habit from doing footnotes for historical reports.

Alison said...

e.a.f. : "Honour" being a somewhat mutable word in Con circles.

Holly : A "bad habit" for which all of us are always grateful. ;-)

John B. said...

At least they didn’t put a fake nametag on his fake military coat.

Do you remember MacKay’s gruelling two-day ordeal on “Make the Boss Work”? I can’t tell by the picture at this link whether “Private MacKay” had one.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/02/19/the-good-soldier-a-portrait-of-peter-mackay/

scotty on denman said...

Parasitic IPPs, whose expensive, uncompetitive power BC Hydro (the citizens of BC) is forced to buy, have not been complying with water (streamflow) regulations yet industry and BC Liberals alike are suggesting it's a choice between fish and higher rates and that they somehow know consumers will choose "cheaper" rates over fish habitat. The real solution, without fakery, is to eliminate all IPPs that do not comply.

Anonymous said...

You forgot: Fake hair. ;)

Holly Stick said...

Article about how Harper wearing military insignia is offensive to real military people. The author apparently has reported on veterans issues:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jeff-rosemartland/stephen-harper-military-jacket_b_3510607.html

Alison said...

Thanks, Holly. Dave and Boris, who I linked to in the post on just this issue, at the Beav both used to go ballistic over this stuff. Dave did several good ones too - will try to locate when I get a mo.

Holly Stick said...

Yes, I remember that well. When Brent Rathgeber left CPC caucus David Climenhaga did a couple of posts, and I linked to some Galloping Beaver posts in the comments where others were discussing the uniform thing:

http://albertadiary.ca/2013/06/did-he-jump-or-was-he-pushed-outspoken-alberta-conservative-mp-goes-over-the-side.html#comment-80692

Climenhaga also has a couple of photos of Rathgeber in uniforms here: http://albertadiary.ca/2013/06/stephens-even-brent-rathgebers-out-peter-goldrings-back-alls-right-with-the-world.html

Problem is that Galloping Beaver doesn't have a consistent search term for those posts so it takes some looking.

Also in today's news, twitter photos of Stephen and Laureen Harper helping with High River flood damage:

https://twitter.com/pmharper/status/353304547558555649

Let's hope the photo-op criticisms at least made him work up an honest sweat!

Justin Trudeau had announced last week he would help out but without doing a photo-op. I don't know if he's in Calgary now. The Hays breakfast is the big Liberal thing and perhaps it'll be next weekend? I don't get invited to these political things and have to go for the free Stampede breakfasts instead.

Then again that terrible explosion in Quebec may change things for Trudeau.

Holly Stick said...

I just remembered Harper has asthma, doesn't he? So possibly he can't spend much time in a dusty place like High River, where reporter Jen Gerson said last week that there was "poo dust" in the air.

Alison said...

Holly Stick : Here's a couple from The Beav:

Dear General Natynczyk

A gross misuse of the uniform

Conservative Uniform Fetish Disorder

Anon : No I didn't ;-) Just, um , not into the hair in the fridge complaints, compared to everything else.

Scotty : Only we're not even going to get those cheaper rates, are we?

John B : See first Beav link above.

Holly Stick said...

Photo op things keep coming up: PM's Public Events page refers to visit to Lac Megantic as photo op, no questions:

https://twitter.com/___Danno/status/353884019500400640

Apparently this is a standard description, as in his first visit re Calgary flood on June 21. But insensitive:

https://twitter.com/___Danno/status/353895671897661440/photo/1

Anonymous said...

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper will participate in a photo opportunity."

Nice. The media should report it just like that.

Holly Stick said...

Justin Trudeau did work in High River for an afternoon, it is said. Good photo:

https://alberta.liberal.ca/?p=1447

Holly Stick said...

One more about people helping in High River, and improved behaviour I think by various politicians: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/story.html?id=8628196

Holly Stick said...

One more about poll on political response and other interesting reactions to the Alberta floods:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/23/alberta-flood-response-stephen-harper_n_3640766.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

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