Gordo appointee cans Elections BC officer who axed Gordo's HST mailout

The popularity of Lotusland's estimable premier is currently running at a crushing 12%.

.

There are a lot of very good reasons for this but let's just go with what 83% of the people polled told Angus Reid : they don't trust the bastard.

Here's another reason, not that you'd know anything about it from reading our local press.

When Gordon Campbell was planning to mail out a plushy $780,000 pamphlet hawking the benefits of his new Harper Scam Tax to the same BC residents who were successfully gathering sufficient signatures to have that sucker repealed, Elections B.C. Deputy CEO Linda Johnson told him he couldn't do that. No advertising during the repeal drive, she wrote in her decision, because Elections BC is an independent office which covers referenda as well as elections.

Finangling Minister Colin "HST wasn't on my radar" Hansen was some pissed about that.

Meanwhile the chief electoral officer ended his term in June and Gordo appointed a temporary replacement, Craig James, formerly the clerk of committees, who immediately enraged everyone by not sending the HST repeal petition to committee until business groups could do a court challenge to it. Nice.

Now that same Gordo appointee Craig James has fired Linda Johnson, 19 years the deputy chief electoral officer, four months after she nixed Gordo's HST ad campaign.

Ah, but it's not a firing, said some flack, they're just restructuring Elections BC without a deputy now.

Sure they are. Because what better time to fire the #2 person than just three months after the #1 guy has left, and just as a major confrontation on the HST is in the offing.

And what the hell is a temporary Campbell-appointed CEO doing "restructuring" Elections BC anyway?

It would be good to hear something from Acting Chief Electoral Officer Craig James about this but unfortunately he is apparently away doing volunteer work somewhere for the moment.
Well, there'll be volunteer work aplenty after the recalls start.
.
thanx to RossK for the horrible pic. Yup, Gordo endorsed Steve's re-election .

A coronation if necessary but not necessarily a coronation

The puffin is a noble bird
He buries his own crap
But also Rae, Stephane Dion
And the coalition chaps.

No more a fan of torture
Or adventures in Iraq
He's been crowned by the Librulz
Just to fend off Gilles and Jack.

The rest of us are worried
What's hidden up his sleeve
But all will be forgiven
If he also buries Steve.

Steve gets a medal

Prime Minister Harper receives international human rights award :

"the B’nai Brith International President’s Gold Medallion, in recognition of the Government’s efforts to fight discrimination and uphold human rights in Canada and around the world."

In presenting the award, the B'nai Brith international president cited four "actions the Prime Minister and the Government have taken to advance human rights and oppose discrimination".

Of the four, two concern support for Israel, one is "unequivocally supporting Canada’s role in the UN-sanctioned mission in Afghanistan", and the fourth is ... the fourth is "delivering a heartfelt apology" to the First Nations.


Irony is not available for comment at this time.


And from NaPo : PM calls UN conference an 'anti-Western hatefest'

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a delegation of B'nai B'rith members yesterday that Canada is refusing to participate in a United Nations conference on racism :
"We will not be party to an anti-Semitic and anti-Western hatefest dressed up as an anti-racism conference."

Cross-posted at Creekside

CTV : "Harper praised outing Bush"

LuLu posted this photo from the Three Amigos Summit and commented:

"It looks like Big Daddy just doesn't know how to quit Dubya.
Eewwwwwwwww"

Bad LuLu.

That comment is exactly the kind of gratuitous scurrilous hyperbole the main scream media is always slagging the blogosphere for. Furthermore....

Hang about. What's this from CTV?

"Latest : Three amigos summit :

CTV News: Robert Fife with more from the summit

" Prime Minister Stephen Harper praised outing US President George Bush Monday to start the "Three Amigos Summit"

Sorry, LuLu, I didn't realize you had already had Harper's endorsement on that "outing" thing.
Carry on.

(And everyone else go look quick before they fix it)

SPP : Jelly beans and the DHS

At the Montebello press conference, a reporter asked Harper, Bush, and Calderon point blank whether the SPP agenda on border security, energy, and streamlining regulations was a prelude to a North American union and hey, what about that NAFTA highway?

Harper : "Is the sovereignty of Canada going to fall apart if we standardize the jelly bean? You know, I don't think so."

Bush twice said he was "amused by the conspiracy theories" and "It's quite comical, actually, when you realize the difference between the reality and what some people are talking on TV about."

Jelly beans and Bush's particular take on reality vs TV. OK then.

The above letterhead is from one of the only internal government documents we have to date on the SPP. Obtained via a Freedom of Information request from the US government watchdog group, Judicial Watch, it is a memo from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, this Michael Chertoff :

"I want to take this opportunity to thank you and your respective staffs for your support of the SPP up to this point. The components involved in the development of the SPP implementation report substantially advanced our homeland security agenda with Canada and Mexico."

"DHS-led U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico groups already in existence will take on the SPP actions within their scope. That said, the SPP has, in addition to identifying a number of new action items, comprehensively rolled up most of our existing homeland security-related policy initiatives with Canada and Mexico, and ongoing action and reporting in the various U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico working groups led by DHS should now be driven by a single agenda : the SPP."

We now return you to your regularly scheduled coverage of jelly beans and Bush's take on reality.

(Cross posted from Creekside. Written by Alison.)
(Filched by Dave)

Mission Accomplice

In May 2003, George stood on the helicopter deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and pronounced the invasion of Iraq a success - just as the guerilla war turned deadly.

No one believed him.

On Thursday, Steve stood on the helicopter deck of the HMCS Halifax and announced a $3.1B military upgrade for the navy.

He has stated his willingness to leave Afghanistan in 2009 as long as there is a Con sensus.

No one believes him either.

H/T Impolitical (Cross-posted at Creekside)