So long to The Way of the Metal Fist

Sandra Buckler resigns.

Buckler : "(French bouclier 'shield', from old French bocle, boucle 'boss') is a small shield gripped in the fist -- it was generally used as a companion weapon in hand-to-hand combat, useful in deflecting the blow of an opponent's sword or mace.

The primary use of the buckler is to protect the sword hand. The buckler's lightness and curved center made it excellent for deflecting attacking blades. Such a deflection would leave the attacker open for a rapid counter-attack.

"Metal fist": A buckler can be used to directly attack an opponent by punching with either its flat face or its rim."

h/t : Way of the Metal Fist

Steve and Sandra and Grover

And here's the article : Harper's 'nation of shopping centres'

"Tom Flanagan, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's longtime confidant and former chief of staff, is delighted at the Conservatives' success in "tightening the screws on the federal government" to dramatically reduce its significance in the daily lives of Canadians.
The Conservatives' three budgets have left Ottawa financially incapable of offering any new national social program like affordable housing, higher education or day care. Although overall spending went up, mostly on the military, measures were taken to deplete revenues to the point future governments' hands will be tied unless they raise taxes or run deficits, both prescriptions for political suicide.

Flanagan is impressed that Harper managed to execute his stealthy revolution in Canadian public policy with barely a whimper from the public. But that, too, was the strategy according to the University of Calgary professor and Reform party founder.

"Part of the execution of the plan was that there would be conservatives attacking him, like John Williamson (of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation) and Gerry Nicholls (Harper's successor as head of the far-right National Citizens' Coalition). That's extremely useful, to have that kind of pressure there, berating the prime minister for not doing enough."

Steve and Sandra send in the drones

Dear Con aficionados of talk radio and Steno mini-Steves:

It's bad enough that the Cons think you are too stupid to articulate in your own words why you are a Con; it's rather worse that you apparently go along with this assessment.

Callers to radio phone-in shows scripted by Conservative headquarters

and ditto letters to the editor.

Steve and Sandra and the $1M question

Almost a third of Canadians think Harper is lying over Cadman affair : Poll

"Almost one-third of respondents said they favoured a public investigation led by a third party, such as the Commons Speaker or ethics commissioner, while 31 per cent said an investigation by the RCMP would be the most appropriate course of action."

H/t Dana at TGB

Steve and Sandra's political football

What's with all this "war is above political football" crap?

Thomas Walkom : Why shouldn't voters discuss war?
"Those who praise the Liberals for supporting the Conservative government on Afghanistan argue that it is crucial to avoid politicizing the war, lest it become an election issue. The argument here is that the war is too important to be left to the voters......When else are we supposed to get a crack at it?"

Answer : Apparently when it's safe enough even for Liberals.

"I misspoke," said Sandra Buckler,

by way of explaining how it was she came to tell the Globe&Mail that the Canadian military had failed to inform the Canadian government that it had halted the transfer of Afghan detainees two months ago.

Amusingly, Defence Minister Peter MacKay refused to clarify her remarks : "I'm not going to do anything that's going to endanger the lives of the Canadian Forces personnel or Afghans involved in this operation," he said.
"Or endanger my increasingly dimming chances of ever succeeding Harper," he did not add.

Perhaps she actually said, "I miss Gunsmoke" or possibly even "I'm Miss Poison Oak" instead.
Whatever.
At times like this I find it's best to stick with the professionals...
From Word Pirates :

Misspoke - "Used by politicians to imply they expressed themselves "imperfectly or incorrectly" (Websters) when in reality, they were lying through their teeth"

Steve and sandra and the new two-tier torture awareness program

Oooops - NYTimes says it is, Steve. And then Max forgot to give Afghanistan special torture dispensation in his presser yesterday :

Ottawa Citizen : "Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier yesterday disavowed the inclusion of Israel and the United States on an official list of countries where prisoners can be tortured, and said the document would be revised.
"I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the department's torture awareness training," Mr. Bernier said in a statement.
"It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten."

Silly civil servants. Why can't they keep up with who our allies are?
Luckily, Max is gonna fix it with his new two-tier torture awareness program.

Steve and Sandra count their blessings

PM rejects charge that Canada is 'isolated' in its viewpoint
The Ottawa Citizen :

"A defiant Stephen Harper has rejected Liberal accusations that he embarrassed Canada on the world stage in Commonwealth climate change talks, vowing to push all countries for binding restrictions to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
"I've seen reports that suggest Canada was isolated in this position. That's not remotely true," the prime minister said.

The only country that Mr. Harper named as a supporter was Trinidad and Tobago."

Steve and Sandra talk tasers

CTV : "RCMP Cpl. Gregg Gillis is the force's expert on Taser training and excited delirium -- the mysterious condition of heart-pounding agitation used as a kind of catch-all label by those who can't otherwise explain why a growing number of people have died soon after being zapped."

Heh.

Updated figures:1000 incidents involving Tasers in BC since 2005

Steve and Sandra throw Brian under a bus

To : The Ministers of Whatever and your various meaningless minions
From : The PMO
"Effective immediately and until further notice, none of you are to utter the name Brian for any reason whatsoever. Needless to say, talking to anyone named Brian is also strictly forbidden. Some of you nobodies have displayed the unfortunate lack of foresight to name your firstborn Brian. Too bad, no exceptions.
Signed,
Sandra Buckler

PSA : Steve Won't Teabag Brian No More
TGB : Trouble in the Conservative Sandbox

Steve and Sandra have a cold one

New set of attack ads take aim at Dion

Poilievre provided the "normal....having a cold one" quote.

Dickhead.

As Dave says : "Welcome to the Reform agenda. It hasn't changed save for the political party name under which it exists."

Steve and Sandra - I am so the boss of you

Steve says 2011 in the throne speech.

Hillier says :"Afghanistan's army could need 10 years before it's in a position to fend for itself."

Dave says : "If anyone knows what it takes to train an army, it's Sandra Buckler."

In his non-retraction retraction, Hillier says : "I'm very clear on where the direction comes from. … We're on exactly the same page and I believe actually we see things exactly the same way."

He doesn't scale back to 2011; instead he implies that Harper also knows it will take another decade.

So either the war on Afghanistan is a bad idea and the sooner we get out the better, or the reconstruction is a good idea and we should stay till it's done. Picking the date 2011 merely fulfills our duty to NATO and has fuck all to do with what's good for Afghanistan.

Steve and Sandra - Getting Things Undone

All this, and they were only elected with 36% of the popular vote.

MacKay, flypaper, and...The Battle of the Bulge?

Peter MacKay was in Washington yesterday to observe the annual Canadian Defence Minister's homage to Bush's flypaper strategy :
"If the job is not done in Afghanistan, if countries like Canada leave, the Taliban can follow them,'' MacKay told Canadian reporters here.

The tradition began in October 2004 when President Bush, aka Crusader Bunnypants, addressed reporters in Greeley, Colorado:
"We have defeated the Taleban..."
Wait, that's not it...just a sec...scrolling down...ah, here we go :

"We are fighting these terrorists with our military in Afghanistan and Iraq and beyond so we do not have to face them in the streets of our own cities." (Applause.)

Canada failed to observe the flypaper strategy ceremony in 2005 for some reason, but here's Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor in April 2006 :

"Fighting terrorists in Afghanistan is better than waiting until they show up in Vancouver, Montreal or Ottawa, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor told the Commons on Monday."

MacKay slipped in a small coda of his own yesterday when he added a reference to the US Battle of the Bulge, saying he wanted to "look into the whites of the eyes'' of other NATO countries to determine whether those nations truly appreciate the need to step up in Afghanistan and the impact on their countries if they don't :

"North America is not immune. Continental Europe is not immune. Nobody is immune.''

Canadian reporters were puzzled but they wrote it all down anyway.

And did I call this one back in July? Why yes, yes I did.