Showing posts with label Dimitri Soudas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dimitri Soudas. Show all posts

Monday, 9 February 2015

Why aren't intelligent blondes speaking up against this abomination?

A few weeks back, I joked on Twitter about how *some* blondes made the whole... race? species? look dumb, and that the smart ones should sue for defamation of character.

You know, just as every secular, cultural or religious muslim should loudly, publicly denounce every act of violence committed by barbaric individuals and groups who exploit an ideological interpretation of Islam to justify their carnage and sexual terrorism. 

And now this, in my email box this morning.

Just put "Eve Adams" in a search box on Twitter. Hundreds of tweets and re-tweets.  Some amusing. Some informative. Some trenchant. Some ... not so much.

One has to wonder if the testosterone-endowed members of the LPC even bothered consulting the savvy women in their party to ascertain whether accepting Adams was a sagacious decision.

At DJ! we wrote this about Adams right after the 2011 election. Before the first break-up with Soudas. Their reconciliations. The betrayals. The ongoing media soap opera.

So. Did Eve Adams jump or was she pushed?

There's a third possibility.

She and her partner Dimitri Soudas are being deliberately planted by Harper to gather intelligence on the LPC election campaign plans and to deliberately derail them.  Yes, that would be quite a crafty, brazen Machiavellian move — but remember how the CPC was founded?




Or, the toxic duo's tactical defection to the neoLibs is temporary, one that they will leverage when Harper is gone and the CPC flounders as the PC did after Mulroney's departure + Kim Campbell's ignominious defeat in 1993. Will DimEve Soudams™ triumphantly return to the party with considerable political *assets* that can be exploited?

Frank has another take, as always quite irreverent.




Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, one is reminded of this famous unblonde quote:



UPDATE: Harper's Politburo/PMO orchestrates the predictable drive-by bousillage with the gleeful assistance of its pet trolls, Attack Parrots and smarmy QMI stenographers. This one from Sun hack Lorne Gunter is particularly vile and sexist.

Friday, 23 November 2012

A Smoking Gun?!?! Could it be?

So close, yet still no cigar.

Old-school investigative journalism techniques have been most effectively demonstrated for the young'uns by Curtis and Maher in this recent piece.
Several people listed as donors to a Conservative riding association in Montreal say they did not make the donations attributed to them by the party.

The donations – in the amounts of $333.33, $666.66 and $733.33– appear on the 2009 Elections Canada filing of the Conservative riding association of Laurier-Sainte-Marie, a downtown Montreal district [where] Conservative candidate Charles K. Langford, a businessman and professor, came fifth in the riding in 2008 and fourth in 2011.

From 2006 to 2009, the Conservative riding association collected $583,318.96 from 931 donations, many from people connected with engineering companies and law firms. It also distributed $376,739.36 – mostly to other ridings around Quebec. The Megantic-Lerable riding of Industry Minister Christian Paradis, for instance, received $41,841 in 2009.

[...]The Conservatives collected many donations at a big fundraising dinner held at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth hotel on May 20, 2009, according to the riding’s financial officer, Benoit Larocque.

[...]Senator Leo Housakos, who was then Harper’s key organizer in Quebec, organized the event. Housakos, a close friend of Harper’s then-director of communications, Dimitri Soudas, did not respond to queries about his role in fundraising for the riding association.
Soudas was recently mentioned in disclosures offered by witnesses in the Charbonneau Commission inquiry into corruption in construction contracts awarded in Quebec.

More DJ! posts with regard to alleged CPC corruption, dodgy fundraising, voter suppression and illegal election undertakings can be found here, here, here, here and here.

Stephen Maher and his other colleague Glen McGregor deserve Jubilee Medals ... perhaps the Order of Canada for their steadfast investigations and reporting into the nefarious and possibly felonious activities of the CON party.

Monday, 5 March 2012

Double Whammy: Election Fraud + In & Out?

Last November, the CPC and its fundraising organ pleaded guilty to their violations of the Canada Elections Act.

Senator Finley is a lying Attack Parrot™© flapping his gums and trying to divert attention from his CONtempt Party's record of illegal and criminal practices, in light of alleged voter suppression and election fraud activities during the 2011 campaign.

Last week Le Devoir's Hélène Buzzetti did some good old-fashioned investigative journalism and produced information that seems to demonstrate that the CPC did it again. Here's an adaptation of her findings, in English.
Using the telephone – what else for this kind of story? - she established that money that helped pay for the Conservatives’ automated robocalls went through Quebec.

She called up Quebec conservative candidates one after another.She had them singing like canaries in a mine after a while.

Bertin Denis, defeated Conservative candidate in Rimouski-Neigette-Témiscouata-Les Basques, (that’s a trip in itself) admitted his campaign organization had paid $ 15 000.01 to the Toronto-based Responsive Marketing Group (RMG.)

Bertin Denis laid it out plainly. He was no more than a "mail box" for paying phone call bills to other parts of Canada. The party had sent him $55,000 but he had to write out a cheque to RMG for $15,000.01.

Money in, money out. (Sounds familiar?)He couldn’t remember what the cheque to RMG was for.
There appears to be a number of Québecois CPC candidates who claimed expenses that were actually in support of activities done for the national campaign, and not for their riding. Robocalls support.

We have to keep the pressure up; it appears CONs are currently trying to discredit the Elections Canada investigation with every Rovian tactic at their disposal.

Many politically engaged bloggers who don't support the Contempt Party for a multitude of reasons and voted for other parties were puzzled that the Bruce Carson corruption story didn't sink Stevie's boat.

The Toronto Star's Susan Delacourt provides some insight into how the CPC accomplished that, in her excellent article:
Quoting from StatsCan figures, Soudas said that while 92 per cent of Canadians claimed to watch TV news and 70 per cent claimed to read newspapers, in fact the real figures are around 50 per cent for both.

This is why, Soudas explained, Conservatives concentrated their advertising buys on more popular, non-news TV shows. It’s also why the Conservatives pay close attention to giving citizens the same clear, strong imagery that Canadians are accustomed to seeing in their consumer brands.
No matter how hard the Cons try to deodorize this corruption and hide their criminal actions, their *brand* still stinks.

Thursday, 21 April 2011

He's the boss, the *real* boss of Québec.






















To paraphrase Dorothy Parker: "What fresh scandal is this?"

Though it may be today's 'fresh', it's the latest revelation of an ongoing effort by several journalists to investigate rank influence-peddling, allegedly by Dimitri Soudas.
On Thursday morning, several audio recordings appeared on YouTube purporting to be conversations between two businessmen prominent in the Quebec construction industry, Tony Accurso and Bernard Poulin.
In what sounds like a telephone conversation, two people discuss how they would work to influence the appointment process to choose the next chief executive of the port authority. Their choice, just like that of the federal government and the city of Montreal, was Abdallah, a former executive director of the city until 2006. He was subsequently employed by one of Accurso’s companies.

The voice reported to be that of Poulin says he would talk to Montreal Tory Senator Leo Housakos, then a prominent party fundraiser, and ask him to bring Soudas, his good friend, on board.

“It’s not through Leo’s relationship to (Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence) Cannon that he’s good, it’s through Dimitri Soudas,” says the voice identified as Poulin. “So far, he appears to be very capable of delivering the goods.”

They discuss “compensation” for Soudas if he can “deliver something” for them on the appointment process.
When questioned about the latest development in this unfolding scandal, Contempt Party leader Harper said allegations about Soudas' actions are "categorically false" ... which might actually mean, in true Con fashion ... *correct in a different category* ... *untrue, but only in the details* ... or something else along those lines.

Wonderful pic found at Pushed To the Left and Loving It.

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Small-time fixer, big-time fibber.

When I was researching this post about Con candidates Larry 'Touchdown' Smith and Agop Evereklian, I found a series of investigative journalism that Rue Frontenac had published with regard to connections between Tony Accurso, ex-PMO politburo mouthpiece Dimitri Soudas and Sen. Leo Housakos.

Radio-Canada and the Globe & Mail have also been looking into other *interests* those three may have in common.

Dimitri Soudas

A case of behind-the-scenes political interference involving Harper's PMO, the City of Montreal and businessmen in the construction industry has resurfaced. An investigation by the CBC and the Globe and Mail revealed that part of the showdown was played around the appointment of the CEO of the Port of Montreal in 2007. Former minister and Senator Michael Fortier broke the silence surrounding a campaign of persuasion, pressure and threats on specific board members.
What jumps out from this sordid tale is that Dimitri Soudas is a big-time prevaricator and small-time fixer.

This is likely only the tip of an iceberg, hopefully one that will further sink the Contempt Party.

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Did Con candidates pack the crowd?


On Tuesday the Contempt party held a multi-candidate (all-Cons) in St-Agapit, Québec. From here:
Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis, Harper’s Quebec lieutenant and MP for Mégantic-L’Érable, said the Bloc reflects Montreal’s trendy Plateau Mont-Royal and Duceppe only agrees with those who think like him, saying that means defending criminals and illegal immigration. “We don’t think like you,” Paradis said, addressing the absent Duceppe.
Jacques Gourde, the local MP for Lotbinière-Chutes de la Chaudière riding, introduced the Conservative senators and candidates, as well as [André] Arthur, who has been the independent MP for Portneuf-Jacques-Cartier riding in Quebec City’s suburbs since 2006, but votes with the Conservatives.
While a number of same-old same-old declarations were uttered, the main purpose of this event was to shout down accusations the Contempt Party screens out registered participants who might be *undesirable*. And to pack those pre-screened bodies into a crowded venue, so that ex-PMOpolitburo Attack Parrot Dimitri Soudas had something to say - over and over again, whatever the question posed by CBC reporter Louise Elliot.

This was another staged photo opp for Contempt leader Harper, a purported MASSIVE crowd to cheer him up, providing more and more pix for more *patriotic* Con election ads that are ∧NOT attacks on the former Opposition parties. This one is an odious visual hagiography of Emperor Stevie Spiteful. Who knew he played a role in winning WWII?

Here's a wrap-up of the Contempt Party's classic Rovian crowd control tactics and an upbeat antidote:
Conservatives [...] don’t want activists sneaking in with hidden placards and disrupting the political homogenity of the crowd. So here’s my idea: We do exactly that. We justify their fear. If Dimitri Soudas’ fears are realized then he will have no choice but to continue to screen campaign event attendance, which will continue to make the Conservatives look bad. The side-benefit is that we get to break up the meaningless hyper-partisan campaign events that are taking away from discussion of the real issues in this election.
So if Harper or a Conservative cabinet minister shows up in your town, do whatever you can to get into his event, then make a scene. It could be a big scene or a small scene, but make sure that his staffers know you were there. Let’s push [...]
BACK!

Bonus: delightful YouTube animation

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

If Iggy Lost Canada the UN Security Council Seat. . . .

Doesn't that mean Iggy has more clout with international leaders than Stevie Peevie?

Surely even die-hard Cons can't help but giggle when the ever-classy Soudas flaps his gums and comes out with this:
Mr. Harper's office wasted little time assigning blame for the disappointment, placing it at the feet of Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

“I would say a big deciding factor was the fact that Canada's bid did not have unity because we had Mr. Ignatieff questioning and opposing Canada's bid,” Dimitri Soudas, Harper's communications director, told The Canadian Press.

“That was a factor that played ultimately against Canada because people outside of Canada were saying, ‘Well, Germany and Portugal have a united front, their opposition and their governments seem to be fully, 100 per cent behind this bid.’

“Canada did not have that required advantage. We had an Opposition Leader that opposed Canada and clearly was not in it for Canada on this one.”

'Big deciding factor'. Yeah, right. Like any of the delegates even know who the Canadian Opposition leader is, let alone what he said.

Quick, what's the name of the opposition leader in Germany? Portugal?

Stevie Spiteful hates Canada and now, because of him, so do a lot of other countries.


Bonus: here's Lawrence Loose Cannon singing the same idiotic little ditty.

More bonus: CP quotes more from Soudas:
As for suggestions that the Harper government's unabashed support for Israel may have cost Canada support from Arab countries, Soudas said:

"Throughout the duration of this bid, we did not barter our principled foreign policy, be it on Iran, be it on North Korea, be it on any topic . . . Canadians have values such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law and those values were not bartered or jeopardized at any time."

WTF? And Germany's and/or Portugal's values were bartered?????????

Soudas said Ignatieff's accusation that the Harper government has ignored the United Nations is "false."

"It's a long-standing policy that outside of our borders, we all present a united front and in this case Mr. Ignatieff chose to oppose Canada. . . Once again it shows that Mr. Ignatieff, quite frankly, does not view these issues through the prism of what's best for Canada. He views them through the prism of what's best for him."

Bwahahahahaha. Pot. Kettle.

Thursday, 26 August 2010

Another Day, Another Desperate Spin

So, the Liberals have found some spare vertebrae and have a draft bill to reinstate the mandatory long-form census. John McCallum, point-man on this, said: 'A voluntary survey will skew the picture of what Canada really looks like as lower income minority Canadians will be less likely to fill it out,' which is pretty much what everybody who knows anything about this stuff has been saying.

When I read what Dimitri Soudas said, I actually laughed out loud.
Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister’s director of communications, was taken aback by Mr. McCallum’s statement about minority groups and low-income Canadians.

“It is blatantly outrageous that this (Michael) Ignatieff spokesman asserts that minorities and the poor should be threatened with financial fines and jail time in order to fill out the long form census,” said Mr. Soudas.

The Liberals “constantly look down on working class people and think they aren't as civic minded as liberal elites,” he said. “We believe that freedom is an essential Canadian value, and we don't think that it is right to try to frighten or intimidate people into surrendering huge amounts of private information to the government.”

After yesterday's (was it only yesterday?) 'The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!' laff-riot triumph of Cold War rhetoric, methinks the wheels on the ReformaTory bus are wobbling a bit.

Finally.

I fervently hope.

Monday, 14 December 2009

Another PR stink bomb for the PMO in Copenhagen to dispel - update.

There's an expression in French (Canadian). S'enfarger dans les fleurs du tapis.

This is seemingly what the ReformaTory Con jobs are doing in Copenhagen. Early in the morning, the
media received a press release, "pledging that Canada will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020". They were directed to an official-looking Environment Canada website.

In short order, the communications team accompanying Jim Prentice went into MASSIVE damage control mode. A statement was issued, accusing Steven Guilbeault and his Équiterre staff of engineering the prank. When Dimitri Soudas called an impromptu press conference, Guilbeault showed up to confront the lie and a nasty shouting match ensued, according to a Radio-Canada reporter present.

Ah, those Con jobs, as always dignified under fire, never prone to lash out at real opponents or imaginary enemies, self-effacing, and unlikely to trip all over the pattern in the carpet in their scramble to get their version of truthiness out there.

Updated goodness: From bigcitylib, we learn that Kady O'Malley is on top of the story, here.

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

Cats on Dimitri Soudas: Why Does He Hate Us?

Fur flew, the claws came out and by the end of it all, a large hairball had been coughed up.

Though it all started innocently enough with a text message, not even a tweet.

"Thatcher has died".

That texting triggered a cascade of embarassing communications which ended with an ailurophobic remark.

Had it not actually happened, one might assume it was a brilliant Monty Python sketch, just as memorable as the dead Norwegian Blue parrot.

But it did and it was reported by the BBC in its characteristic pithy style.