"American Style" Dirty Tricks.

The next time someone like the NDP's Pat Martin or the Liberal's Bob Rae decry "American Style"  dirty tricks you may want to consider what this actually means.

Case in point, the brouhaha surrounding comments Rush Limbaugh made about 30 yr. old student/activist Sandra Fluke.  Those of you familiar with the American political scene will already know about the controversy which ensued when Limbaugh called Fluke a slut and a whore for her position on federally mandated birth control coverage by Catholic institutions. 

I have no interest in debating this issue here and now but raise it to illustrate a point.  And that point is the organized response of the left that seeks to make political hay of the controversy Limbaugh finds swirling around him.  It seems that robocalls are a prominent aspect of the left's counter attack.

An excerpt;

A group calling itself "The Women of the 99 Percent" is making robocalls across the United States in an attempt to link Republican members of the House of Representatives to "the war on women led by Rush Limbaugh".
The automated calls are illegal because they do not state who they are from (there is no known group called The Women of the 99 Percent) or provide a callback number, as required under the US Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.
Using the Left-wing "Occupy" terminology of the 99 percent versus the one percent, they appear to be the most aggressive attempt yet by Democrats to exploit politically the recent furore over comments by the controversial conservative radio talk show host.

Please note the illegality of these robocalls, oweing to the fact that they do not identify who is behind them.

Now lets jump north of the 49th where we Canadians are embroiled in our own robocall scrum, with the aforementioned leading lights of the left leading the charge.  This would be all well and good except for the fact the Liberals have had to admit that they engaged in exactly the same unidentified calls that are going on in the USA.

This;

It seems the Conservatives were not the only campaign using robocalls in the race for Guelph, eventually won by Liberal, Frank Valeriotte.
A former provincial Progressive Conservative candidate, Greg Schirk, who lives in the city, has discovered a call made to his home on the Saturday night before the election that does not, in apparent contravention of the Elections Act, state clearly on whose behalf it was made.
The robo-caller identifies herself as Lori or Laurie McDonald of Guelph and says she is appalled by Mr. Burke’s beliefs on women’s rights. “Conservative candidate Marty Burke believes that under no circumstances should a woman have a right to choose…. The race in Guelph is very close — vote strategically on Monday to protect our rights from Marty Burke and his extreme views.”

And this;

UPDATE: Frank Valeriotte, Liberal MP for Guelph, has responded:
“This was an issue based call, not a voter suppression call. It was paid for by our campaign.”
He said the fact it was not identified as coming from the Liberal Party was an “oversight” and that his office had been “completely open” with Elections Canada.

So to recap.  Our friends on the left, both north and south of the longest undefended border in the world, seem to have a penchant for raising inflamatory social issues in contravention of campaign laws. Specifically, failing to identify who is behind the smears.

One could make the case that the illegal robocalls now happening in the U.S. were inspired by "Canadian Style" dirty tricks.

Go figure.

Karma is a Bitch

The  Fisker Karma has been confirmed as the ironic car of the year;

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/fisker-recalling-239-karma-electric-cars-for-fire-hazard/#

Here's why.

 http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-consumerreports-fiskerbre8271a5-20120308,0,3461662.story


Funny shit eh?

Elizabeth May Call Your Office...

These have got to be tough times for the leader and sole sitting MP of the Green Party of Canada. As a one issue party with a caucus of one it can't be good when your cause dissipates like so much hot air. The hysteria over Anthropogenic Global Warming has been on the decline for years but recent developments must be especially disheartening for the climate alarmism industry.

Case in point, this recent missive from the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit and Met Office in the UK. I will also add that the CRU was the organization at the center of the climategate e-mail scandal wherein all manner of dirty tricks and junk science were exposed.

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

So, based on actual observed data, global warming ceased in 1997. No wonder the Met and CRU released this report "without fanfare".

As if that wasn't bad enough news for a Canadian environmental warrior, there is this;

One of the world’s top climate scientists has calculated that emissions from Alberta’s oilsands are unlikely to make a big difference to global warming and that the real threat to the planet comes from burning coal.

“I was surprised by the results of our analysis,” said Andrew Weaver, a University of Victoria climate modeller, who has been a lead author on two reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “I thought (the threat of oilsands emissions) was larger than it was.”

In a commentary published Sunday in the prestigious journal Nature, Weaver and colleague Neil Stewart analyze how burning all global stocks of coal, oil and natural gas would affect temperatures. Their analysis breaks out unconventional gas, such as undersea methane hydrates and shale gas produced by fracking, as well as unconventional oil sources including the oilsands.

They found that if all the hydrocarbons in the oilsands were mined and consumed, the carbon dioxide released would raise global temperatures by about 0.36C. That’s about half the total amount of warming over the last century.

When only commercially viable oilsands deposits are considered, the temperature increase is only 0.03C.

It now seems that many of those who most loudly beat the AGW drums are now backing away from their specious claims. The world has not warmed in the past 15 years and even if it did the Alberta Oilsands are all but inconsequential in the bigger picture.

As the renowned philosopher, Kermit the Frog once said, "It's not easy being green."

Update:

Just to underscore the problem Andrew Weaver's downplaying of the impact of Alberta Oilsands on AGW presents Elizabeth May, check out the links Here, here, here, here and here. Over the years Elizabeth and Andrew have been practically joined at the hip.

This NP editorial from a year ago also provides some insight into Andrew Weaver's possible motivation for backing away from warmist hysteria.

At the end of the day I suspect Elizabeth will do the only thing she can, tear out the goalpost and run like hell.

Five Years Back

Hhmmm.....

http://syncrodox.blogspot.com/2007/02/y2kyotohave-we-reached-peak-snake-oil.html

Ironic Headline of the Year..?

A late challenger...

Happy New Year...

Weather Gone Wild...

As 2011 winds down we are inundated with the obligatory top ten lists and persons or stories of the year. More often than not these fluff pieces tell us more about the mindset of those proposing them then offering any meaningful perspective on the year that was. Time magazine declared "the protester" as person of the year in a poorly disguised attempt to keep the Occupy Wall Street debacle front and center as the U.S. enters an election year. The in the tank MSM so desperately want a grass roots movement of their own with which to support President Obama. Don't believe me. I suggest you compare the coverage of the Tea Party movement in 2010 to that of OWS in 2011.

In Canada, the MSM barely recognized the Conservative majority as the leading story. This despite the fact that a majority was realized for the first time without significant representation from Quebec. That coupled with the addition of thirty seats in Parliament spread between Alberta, B.C. and Ontario has dramatically changed the political landscape in Canada. But hey...How about those NDP?

And then there's Elizabeth May. Thin (on logic) Lizzie has declared the story of the year to be...Weather Gone Wild. Now when I first read the headline I must admit an image of a drunken Mother Nature pulling up her Che Guevara t-shirt to flash her sagging endowments came to mind. Not a pretty mental picture. Somebody needs to help Ms. May on her lede's and her logic.

Case in point:

But I think, for me, the biggest story is the one that never gets told. 2011 was another year of record breaking extreme weather events, most of which are likely the result of human-induced climate change. Of course, the single most devastating event, the Japanese tsunami and the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, were unrelated to climate change.

For years the climate alarmists have told us that weather is not climate, apparently 2011 marked the year that they became synonymous. I will however credit Ms. May for refuting the linkage between the Japanese tsunami and climate change that some of the moonbats claimed.

This moment of lucidity is fleeting as Elizabeth reverts to form with specious claims and out and out bullshit. I'll leave it to you readers to spot the howlers in the following:

For Canada, extreme weather events made 2011 the second most expensive year for the insurance industry. The prairie floods put more land underwater than ever in our history. And the flooding lasted from October 2010 until late July 2011. More devastating floods hit Quebec.

The wild fires brought on by extremely dry conditions destroyed one third of Slave Lake. Much of Canada was blanketed in record-breaking heat for much of the summer. Arctic sea ice hit a near record summer low.

There is more, but my biggest story of the year is the on-going refusal to connect the dots and describe climate change events for what they are. Not "Mother Nature" on a rampage; not some "wacky and wild curve ball."

Climate change events, fitting the pattern of increased extreme events one would expect due to, what is in human experience, the all-time high greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.

So for political story -- Canada filing legal notice of withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol. For biggest story of 2011, the ongoing, accelerating losses due to the climate crisis and the fact of, unlike a suicide bomber in a troubled region where media are keen to find who "claims responsibility," the amazing level of denial. These disasters are no longer "natural"--their causes are known and our government is charting a course to make them worse, year by year.

My advice for Ms. May in 2012...Keep your shirt on.

Tradgedy in T.O.

December 12th 2011 A Day Which Will Live in Infemy.

It really all started two days before when Christy Blatchford fired a shot over the prow of T.O. metrosexuals...

The poignant bit...

And the novelty of being the toughest guy in the room – and by this I mean me – is getting really old.


As you can imagine the commentors were aghast, but this was only a precursor of the carnage to come.

No sooner then the latte had settled and a visit to the spa had calmed down our twitchier T.O. friends, the first torpedo hit.

Jason Kenney had declared himself head fashion Nazi!

The first strike here...

It's a "public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly," he said, calling it "frankly, bizarre" that women were allowed to wear face veils while they swear their citizenship oaths.

Kenney said he doesn't accept that it's a religious obligation to wear the veil, explaining that when Muslim women perform the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca required by their faith, they are required not to cover their faces.

"It's a cultural tradition, which I think reflects a certain view about women that we don't accept in Canada. We want women to be full and equal members of Canadian society and certainly when they're taking the citizenship oath, that's the right place to start,"


Who is Jason Kenney to tell anyone what's fashionable...I mean really...

Of course it got worse...in a devastating second wave Peter Kent flew in from Durban with the environmental a-bomb...NoKoyoto...the world suddenly changed...no longer would mankind wonder about it's demise...it's next Tuesday.

One would think that life had treated T.O. bad enough on this day...that would be wrong. The gay penguins went straight.

Sadly, it's true...

It appears a female has come between one of Canada’s celebrity couples.

Toronto Zoo officials say same-sex penguins Buddy and Pedro have been officially separated and Buddy has mated with a female.

Pedro has yet to get lucky, but officials say it’s not for a lack of trying.

December 12th 2011...A Day That Will Live in Infemy...