I will apologize in advance for the profanity...but who gives a fuck? The PPG and PMSH have never had a cordial relationship. That said, I fully expect the wags that think they matter will wax poetic on how this "breaks tradition", "is typical of Harpers controlling regime" and of course "shows his disrespect for the press".
Boo fuckin Hoo. The big guy isn't going to your party and you are the cool kids......Shaaa!!!
Syncro
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Dr. Suzuki Et Al On how to Have a Carbon Neutral Propogandafest...Live Earth Not Included
I was surfing the net today....the good the bad and the ugly.... just because, and I came across this from the David Suzuki Foundation
An environmental friendly primer for you wannabe social activists. Or Enviroganda 101:
Large events such as conferences, sports competitions, concerts, festivals, and conventions can be major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity, heating and air conditioning, ground transportation, air travel, paper and other materials are just some of the ways that large events contribute to climate change. However, many event organizers are recognizing that large events do not have to have a huge climate impact and, in fact, can play a positive role by becoming low-carbon or even carbon neutral.
Tell me more Dr. Dave.
Recent major events that have taken responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions include: the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), 2006 FIFA World Cup, 2006 Commonwealth Games, the Dave Matthews Band concert tour, the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, and the 2005 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The environmental leadership demonstrated by these events is helping to transform the event industry, with green initiatives quickly becoming expected.
Whaa? Live Earth is not mentioned? Do I smell a whiff of prophet envy or is it a crack in the enviromafia?
According to Al, "Live Earth" was the be all and end all of raising climate change awareness. How is it that this stellar effort is not on the Suzuki radar?
Was it the fact Dave didn't get any face time with Leanardo? Was it all about Al? You didn't get your cut?
Or was the whole thing a colossal waste of time and energy?
Do tell.
Syncro
An environmental friendly primer for you wannabe social activists. Or Enviroganda 101:
Large events such as conferences, sports competitions, concerts, festivals, and conventions can be major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity, heating and air conditioning, ground transportation, air travel, paper and other materials are just some of the ways that large events contribute to climate change. However, many event organizers are recognizing that large events do not have to have a huge climate impact and, in fact, can play a positive role by becoming low-carbon or even carbon neutral.
Tell me more Dr. Dave.
Recent major events that have taken responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions include: the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), 2006 FIFA World Cup, 2006 Commonwealth Games, the Dave Matthews Band concert tour, the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, and the 2005 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The environmental leadership demonstrated by these events is helping to transform the event industry, with green initiatives quickly becoming expected.
Whaa? Live Earth is not mentioned? Do I smell a whiff of prophet envy or is it a crack in the enviromafia?
According to Al, "Live Earth" was the be all and end all of raising climate change awareness. How is it that this stellar effort is not on the Suzuki radar?
Was it the fact Dave didn't get any face time with Leanardo? Was it all about Al? You didn't get your cut?
Or was the whole thing a colossal waste of time and energy?
Do tell.
Syncro
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Savy Political Strategy of the Academic Variety
So it seems the the chips have fallen where they may. Outremount is gone, stormed by the NDP hoard. Off the island the Libs have lost their election deposits. Meanwhile, the little academic that could keeps on chugging away.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and the social scientist at the controls appears to have turned up the same metaphorical box canyon as Steve Fossett.
Two days after the plane wreck in Outremont, Stephane Dion's political instincts have led him up a killer slope. The issues he hopes to take flight with.....the release of Omar Khadr from the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Well that and the brilliant assertion that with leadership numbers polling at a solid 15% what Canadians really want is more Dion. And finally, Harper and the Conservatives are women haters.
Only a cloistered academic who's used to eager freshmen kissing his professorial ass could come to this conclusion.
The fact that in Quebec the decades old mafia style protection racket that the LPoC ran was broken by the Gomery Inquiry is of no consequence. The fact that Dion was a cabinet minister under Chretien and Martin and he failed to mention his principles regarding the detention of Omar Kahdr is to be forgotten. The fact that most Canadians view Stephane as a quirky intellectual with all the charm of a dead mackerel matters not a whit. And of course Steven Harper is a women hater.... for non-denominational deity's sake ....he made his wife take his name!!!
So here is what it is Stephane. Just like Steve Fosset you both have won acclaim in specialized fields. The insular world of the theoretical and the highly prepared feats of derring do that Fossett is famous for share one common theme. They are uncommon.
It is the common that kills. Fossett disappeared flying a two-seater, fabric skinned, high performance, tail dragger on a routine flight in ideal weather. My theory....massive heart attack and the ensuing catastrophic wreck ensured the ELT (emergency locater transmitter) was destroyed. Hence no clue as to where his earthly remains are to be found.
In your case the wreck is going to be easy to spot. Unlike Fossett, you have chosen to fly up a box canyon in a piece of equipment that can't out climb the terrain. The only way out is a hard 180 and you are clearly not inclined to turn back.
A little known fact....98.95% of all fatal aircraft accidents happen at or near the ground. Welcome to the real world.
Syncro
Desperate times call for desperate measures and the social scientist at the controls appears to have turned up the same metaphorical box canyon as Steve Fossett.
Two days after the plane wreck in Outremont, Stephane Dion's political instincts have led him up a killer slope. The issues he hopes to take flight with.....the release of Omar Khadr from the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Well that and the brilliant assertion that with leadership numbers polling at a solid 15% what Canadians really want is more Dion. And finally, Harper and the Conservatives are women haters.
Only a cloistered academic who's used to eager freshmen kissing his professorial ass could come to this conclusion.
The fact that in Quebec the decades old mafia style protection racket that the LPoC ran was broken by the Gomery Inquiry is of no consequence. The fact that Dion was a cabinet minister under Chretien and Martin and he failed to mention his principles regarding the detention of Omar Kahdr is to be forgotten. The fact that most Canadians view Stephane as a quirky intellectual with all the charm of a dead mackerel matters not a whit. And of course Steven Harper is a women hater.... for non-denominational deity's sake ....he made his wife take his name!!!
So here is what it is Stephane. Just like Steve Fosset you both have won acclaim in specialized fields. The insular world of the theoretical and the highly prepared feats of derring do that Fossett is famous for share one common theme. They are uncommon.
It is the common that kills. Fossett disappeared flying a two-seater, fabric skinned, high performance, tail dragger on a routine flight in ideal weather. My theory....massive heart attack and the ensuing catastrophic wreck ensured the ELT (emergency locater transmitter) was destroyed. Hence no clue as to where his earthly remains are to be found.
In your case the wreck is going to be easy to spot. Unlike Fossett, you have chosen to fly up a box canyon in a piece of equipment that can't out climb the terrain. The only way out is a hard 180 and you are clearly not inclined to turn back.
A little known fact....98.95% of all fatal aircraft accidents happen at or near the ground. Welcome to the real world.
Syncro
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Is Garth Planning on Pulling a Belinda?
In light of the Liberal disaster that was Outremont there is much speculation about the future leadership of Stephane Dion. In my previous post I noted an interesting question by a self identified lifelong Liberal. How soon could there be another leadership convention?
This morning commentor Blue Liberal left this on the thread:
In my original post I describe how the picture of my cameraman Chris that appears on Garth's blog could only have come from the tape that the pro was shooting. In the same post Garth identifies the cameraman as being from CBC TV.
Then the crowd shouted the guy down. And that was it. The two sat and grumbled for a while. Shot more videotape. But when a CBC television cameraman started mousing around their corner of the room, the ops fled.
Odd I thought. Then I realized that early on in Garth's show he can be heard asking the cameraman (who was just out of the frame of our video) "Your getting this right?" Around the same time the cameraman moves around the room and mounts the stage to shoot from Garth's perspective. Another oddity for a newsman, No?
I figured this might become pertinent later and ask Chris to get a close-up of the camera. Clearly there are no identifying logos that one might expect.
Once again don't take my word for it. Garth Turner Unedited or Your getting this right?
So, was this a newsman shooting news video or a hired gun shooting tape for some future purpose?
Given last nights by election results I wonder.
And finally check out my previous post. The answer Garth gives in defense of Dion could be construed as somewhat "lefthanded".
Go figure.
Syncro
This morning commentor Blue Liberal left this on the thread:
In my original post I describe how the picture of my cameraman Chris that appears on Garth's blog could only have come from the tape that the pro was shooting. In the same post Garth identifies the cameraman as being from CBC TV.
Then the crowd shouted the guy down. And that was it. The two sat and grumbled for a while. Shot more videotape. But when a CBC television cameraman started mousing around their corner of the room, the ops fled.
Odd I thought. Then I realized that early on in Garth's show he can be heard asking the cameraman (who was just out of the frame of our video) "Your getting this right?" Around the same time the cameraman moves around the room and mounts the stage to shoot from Garth's perspective. Another oddity for a newsman, No?
I figured this might become pertinent later and ask Chris to get a close-up of the camera. Clearly there are no identifying logos that one might expect.
Once again don't take my word for it. Garth Turner Unedited or Your getting this right?
So, was this a newsman shooting news video or a hired gun shooting tape for some future purpose?
Given last nights by election results I wonder.
And finally check out my previous post. The answer Garth gives in defense of Dion could be construed as somewhat "lefthanded".
Go figure.
Syncro
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Will Dion Meet His Waterloo in Outremount?
Hi All!
Much has been said regarding the most recent polls in the Quebec by-elections. Steve Janke of Angry in the Great White North was one of the first to speculate on the possible machinations going on behind the scenes in the LPoC. Some of the most insightful text:
In my last post, I considered the possibility that enemies of Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion from within the party would like to see their own party lose the by-election in the riding of Outremont. A Liberal stronghold, the Liberal candidate is Jocelyn Coulon, an academic cut from the same cloth as Stephane Dion himself, a candidate that was not nominated by the Liberals in the riding but appointed to be their nominee directly by Stephane Dion. A loss would reflect poorly on Stephane Dion on a number of levels -- weakness in Quebec, poor decision-making skills, etc -- and might accelerate his departure as leader of the Liberal Party.
And this:
So there are some lifelong Liberals wondering out loud about the time lines of another leadership convention. Hhhhmmmmmm. What was this tour really about?
What struck me most about the whole Garth Turner experience was the obvious scripted nature of the questions posed by lib operatives.
Make your own conclusions.
Syncro
Much has been said regarding the most recent polls in the Quebec by-elections. Steve Janke of Angry in the Great White North was one of the first to speculate on the possible machinations going on behind the scenes in the LPoC. Some of the most insightful text:
In my last post, I considered the possibility that enemies of Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion from within the party would like to see their own party lose the by-election in the riding of Outremont. A Liberal stronghold, the Liberal candidate is Jocelyn Coulon, an academic cut from the same cloth as Stephane Dion himself, a candidate that was not nominated by the Liberals in the riding but appointed to be their nominee directly by Stephane Dion. A loss would reflect poorly on Stephane Dion on a number of levels -- weakness in Quebec, poor decision-making skills, etc -- and might accelerate his departure as leader of the Liberal Party.
And this:
We don't know whether the allegations are true (Ignatieff supporters like Denis Coderre are adamant that these allegations are groundless) but the fact that Dion's people are going public is very telling.
Think about it.
Stephane Dion and his people see a resounding loss shaping up in Outremont, and not a single win in any three of the Quebec by-elections being held on Monday. The Conservatives, on the other hand, are likely to pick up a seat in Quebec, suggesting that Tory strength in Quebec is not an anomaly that will disappear as memory of the Sponsorship Scandal recedes, but a growing threat based on real shifts in Quebec political thought.
And a real threat to Stephane Dion's future.
The knives are out and in the backrooms operatives are being dispatched to plant the seeds of doubt. I think I may have witnessed one of these Johny Appleseed operatives in action. This clip from Garth Turner's recent Lost Tory Tour's stop in Calgary.So there are some lifelong Liberals wondering out loud about the time lines of another leadership convention. Hhhhmmmmmm. What was this tour really about?
What struck me most about the whole Garth Turner experience was the obvious scripted nature of the questions posed by lib operatives.
Make your own conclusions.
Syncro
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Garth and The Overhead Projector or Everything I Ever Learned About Public Speaking I Copied From Al
Hi All.
Last night I had the honor of meeting a real life MP. Well ...large on the Me and....well....I don't want to get into the p.
But hey...it was fun. As it turns out there happened to be a hardass biker and self professed purveyor of the unvarnished truth riding into my berg. How could I resist. With this in mind I ventured forth to meet this Garthacle warrior.
Unfortunately the hardass turned out to be a candyass, the seasonable weather in Alberta had nixed the thundering Hogs for Democracy symbolic ride. I must admit I had visions of Garth roaring into the room ala Paul Tuetle Sr. but such was not the case. Instead we got a rather crappy Al Gore knockoff with half the sophistication and twice the hyperbole.
There is no need to take my word for it....a lovely pic of me and my camera man can be found at Garth.ca.
On the other hand the raw video of the whole event will be posted here in sections as youtube allows. I must apologize for the poor content as the biker fella seemed a little off his game.
For those of you who don't have the time for the whole Garth Turner experience I suggest the last two minutes of Part 3 along with Parts 4,5 and 6 for maximum viewing pleasure.
Anyways, part one of A Lost Tory Tours or Garth Turner Unedited.
Sorry about the snickering in the background. My bad. I will be updating this post with the entire video as I get it uploaded. Trust me it does get better/worse based on your political leanings and how well developed your sense of the ridiculous is.
Here we are folks...Garth Turner Unedited Part 2 Enjoy!!
I will be adding some commentary as soon as I solve all my technical issues. I must admit I really suck at the technical aspects of all this but I am learning.
Garth Turner Unedited Part 3 is now available. This is where things get interesting.
Garth reports the outing of the con agent provocateurs (Chris and I) on his site as follows:
As usual, I did a 30-minute opening presentation, then we went open mic for the next hour. It’s seldom I get heckled during my formal shtick, but this is Calgary, home of the ugliest emails that this poor little defenseless blog receives. The fact there were two Con operatives lurking in the corner of the back row, one carefully taping my every move, became immediately obvious.
I started to feel all tingly. Finally, protestors. Be still, my heart.
Jeez Garth....immediately obvious...wha... According to the tape it was some 29 minutes into your schtick when I blew my cover.
I had been given some well reasoned advice to play it cool and attempt to trap Garth with a softball question during the Q&A and intended to do so, unfortunately I reacted to a particularly specious rhetorical question thrown out by Garth.
Once again don't take my word for it....Garth Turner Unedited Part 3
Yep...Garth's spider senses were tingling. Although I must admit it takes a skilled orator to connect the collapse of a bridge in Minnesota, an overpass in Quebec and American military spending in Iraq.
Huh...You ask. Watch the last minute again. BTW, I meant what I said...A hell of a show.
More to come.
Garth Turner Unedited Part 4
In this segment we get to the Q&A portion of the dog and pony show. At this point I would like to clarify a few things.
First, I am a member of no political party although I do blog sporadically under the Blogging Tories banner. I consider myself a small c conservative.
Secondly, all the Liberal Party functionaries were sitting on the right side of the room and the less enthusiastic amongst us on the left. Go figure. This does become pertinent once the softballs start getting tossed.
First up is a member of The Mount Royal College Liberal Association (self identified). Can anybody explain to me what the hell his question was? Anyways, I hope nobody gets hurt as Garth knocks the high hangers out of the park.
Back to our previously scheduled entertainment.
Up next...Part 5..or Garth Vader Falters.
More as it's loaded.
The penultimate edition of our little mockumentary. Garth Turner Unedited Part 5.
Garth describes the action this way:
But the big issue to hang around my poor neck once the comment period arrived? That mailers were sent out to people in Calgary, advertising the meeting, and that this was done from the office budgets of more than a dozen of my colleague MPs. As I explained, the mailings were printed by the House of Commons, stuffed into envelopes and mailed by the House, according to rules all MPs must respect. The point was also made that the prime minister uses this technique more than any other MP, flooding other ridings (like mine of Halton) with pro-government material. Like, yawn.
I left it to another person to bring up the current scandal about Conservatives laundering national election money through local ridings. Then the crowd shouted the guy down. And that was it. The two sat and grumbled for a while. Shot more videotape. But when a CBC television cameraman started mousing around their corner of the room, the ops fled.
Now is it just me or is a theme evolving...."my poor neck"..."but this is Calgary, home of the ugliest emails that this poor little defenseless blog receives"...
But I digress.
Things get a little feisty and according to my understanding of the difference between 10%ers and franked mail...well let's watch Garth explain.
The final segment soon to follow along with a few observations.
Done and done. Garth Turner Unedited Part 6
The stirring finale to A Lost Tory Tours.
Once again to clarify. We did not run from the room. I approached the LPoC functionary who offered to explain the nuances of 10%ers and franked mail to me.
According to Garth this would be the fella that shouted me down. While I admit the right side of the room offered enthusiastic applause in response to the party operative's offer to shut me up, I hardly thought I was shouted down.
Chris continued to film and I took my seat and watched as a few more softballs were tossed. The most interesting was the one from the fella in the red and white jacket. Something about a looming LPoC leadership convention. I wonder who he might support?
Next up was the local riding president to pose her second question of the evening. Two out of eight, obviously a lady with much on her mind. As I listened it occurred to me that the next move was to take the fella from the LPC up on his offer.
I approached him politely (kneeling at the edge of the aisle and getting the attention of his pretty escourt who gave him the heads up) and asked to speak with him in the hall. Being an earnest and lawyerly young fella he agreed. You can see us leaving the room on the right side of the screen.
Outside he agreed to an on camera interview to explain how Liberal Mp's communications budgets were co-ordinated to make the Lost Tory Tour the resounding success it obviously is.
Unfortunately, Chris miscued on the camera and only a few seconds at the end of our discussion are caught on tape. Considering we bought the camera at Best Buy yesterday afternoon, Chris did a fine job.
As we taped (well not taped but I explained that) outside the hall we were joined by three older gentlemen who stood off camera. Two of the three were clearly unimpressed. The third who had a decidedly sunnier disposition asked to take my picture with the young lawyer and can be heard commenting at the end of our tape, something to the effect that I asked good questions.
Regardless, that image of me is the one that appears on Garth's blog, although my lawyer friend appears to have been deleted from our photo-op. Sad really, he was a nice fella.
Garth also makes reference in his blog to the CBC cameraman. Chris gets sufficient shots of him over the duration. Here is the interesting part. The picture of Chris that appears on Garth's blog must be directly from the "CBC" camera. At no time that we were aware of did anyone other than the cameraman approach us to take pics in the meeting hall.
Now this poses a number of other questions. I'll pose those at a later date but I do encourage you to let your imagination run amok.
And finally watch the body language of Garth under questioning and the greazy eyeball he shoots at Chris when I was leaving the room.
Nuff said....Garth turner Unedited Part 6
Some final thoughts.
Chris is a young man from Cape Breton who came to Alberta to work because there in none there. On the way home he commented to me as follows:
"We don't have enough problems back home in Cape Breton that these guys have to come out here to create problems or to fix something that aint broke."
And that Mr.Turner is the real essence of what this was all about. You can wax poetic on your blog all you want, hell you can even piss our money away to promote yourself....these things are apparently all legal.
Just don't expect these two citizens to like it.
I speak for myself and Chris does the same. No conspiracy here sir. Unedited is the way to go!
Syncro
UPDATE
I meant to do this earlier but got distracted with the tech angle of all this. Here is mypersonal invitation to last nights event as it appears on Garth.ca
I have been taken to task on Garth's blog by a number of commentors who faithfully defend his honor and have casted aspersions on my motives. Fair enough.
Unfortunately I have been unable to respond due to unforeseen technical gremlins that will not allow me to post to Garth.ca.
If anybody out there is familiar with any of the denizens of Garth's blog I would appreciate if you could direct them this way.
Thanx.
Syncro
Upperdate
I would seem that I've been outed by a regular reader at Garth.ca. This of course would not have been necessary had I been able to post at Garth's site but the aforementioned technical difficulties are still in effect. It seems Digital Democracy has some limitations and challenging Garth on the facts seems to be a big one.
Regardless, my outing :
Sadly, Geo neglected to provide a link to my site. It might have been edifying for other readers of The Turner Report to get access to some Garth Unedited video.
Now it would seem that informed reader Geo and Steve before her (who in an earlier comment states he was at the meeting) take issue with my attire. Although Geo does mention my "con style witty jabs", which I assume are much different than "lib style witty jabs".
Garth offers one here in response to a commentor:
Geo, I'm sorry my wit doesn't meet this high standard.
Now onto my leather jacket. Did you happen to notice the Canadian flag embroidered on the left chest? That jacket was given to me by my Grandfather and was bought through The Royal Canadian Legion. He wore it with pride and I choose to wear it the same way.
If it doesn't meet your fashion approval, so be it. I do also find it interesting that this was your biggest complaint, but then again in some quarters fashion probably does trump fact.
And finally Geo, I stand by my statement that I have never been a member of any political party. As you may or may not know The BT's is a blogroll in the same way Liblogs, Progblogs and Libertyblogs are. Given my self identification as a small c-conservative the Bt's is my obvious blogroll home.
Then again, perceptions are funny, no?
Syncro
Last night I had the honor of meeting a real life MP. Well ...large on the Me and....well....I don't want to get into the p.
But hey...it was fun. As it turns out there happened to be a hardass biker and self professed purveyor of the unvarnished truth riding into my berg. How could I resist. With this in mind I ventured forth to meet this Garthacle warrior.
Unfortunately the hardass turned out to be a candyass, the seasonable weather in Alberta had nixed the thundering Hogs for Democracy symbolic ride. I must admit I had visions of Garth roaring into the room ala Paul Tuetle Sr. but such was not the case. Instead we got a rather crappy Al Gore knockoff with half the sophistication and twice the hyperbole.
There is no need to take my word for it....a lovely pic of me and my camera man can be found at Garth.ca.
On the other hand the raw video of the whole event will be posted here in sections as youtube allows. I must apologize for the poor content as the biker fella seemed a little off his game.
For those of you who don't have the time for the whole Garth Turner experience I suggest the last two minutes of Part 3 along with Parts 4,5 and 6 for maximum viewing pleasure.
Anyways, part one of A Lost Tory Tours or Garth Turner Unedited.
Sorry about the snickering in the background. My bad. I will be updating this post with the entire video as I get it uploaded. Trust me it does get better/worse based on your political leanings and how well developed your sense of the ridiculous is.
Here we are folks...Garth Turner Unedited Part 2 Enjoy!!
I will be adding some commentary as soon as I solve all my technical issues. I must admit I really suck at the technical aspects of all this but I am learning.
Garth Turner Unedited Part 3 is now available. This is where things get interesting.
Garth reports the outing of the con agent provocateurs (Chris and I) on his site as follows:
As usual, I did a 30-minute opening presentation, then we went open mic for the next hour. It’s seldom I get heckled during my formal shtick, but this is Calgary, home of the ugliest emails that this poor little defenseless blog receives. The fact there were two Con operatives lurking in the corner of the back row, one carefully taping my every move, became immediately obvious.
I started to feel all tingly. Finally, protestors. Be still, my heart.
Jeez Garth....immediately obvious...wha... According to the tape it was some 29 minutes into your schtick when I blew my cover.
I had been given some well reasoned advice to play it cool and attempt to trap Garth with a softball question during the Q&A and intended to do so, unfortunately I reacted to a particularly specious rhetorical question thrown out by Garth.
Once again don't take my word for it....Garth Turner Unedited Part 3
Yep...Garth's spider senses were tingling. Although I must admit it takes a skilled orator to connect the collapse of a bridge in Minnesota, an overpass in Quebec and American military spending in Iraq.
Huh...You ask. Watch the last minute again. BTW, I meant what I said...A hell of a show.
More to come.
Garth Turner Unedited Part 4
In this segment we get to the Q&A portion of the dog and pony show. At this point I would like to clarify a few things.
First, I am a member of no political party although I do blog sporadically under the Blogging Tories banner. I consider myself a small c conservative.
Secondly, all the Liberal Party functionaries were sitting on the right side of the room and the less enthusiastic amongst us on the left. Go figure. This does become pertinent once the softballs start getting tossed.
First up is a member of The Mount Royal College Liberal Association (self identified). Can anybody explain to me what the hell his question was? Anyways, I hope nobody gets hurt as Garth knocks the high hangers out of the park.
Back to our previously scheduled entertainment.
Up next...Part 5..or Garth Vader Falters.
More as it's loaded.
The penultimate edition of our little mockumentary. Garth Turner Unedited Part 5.
Garth describes the action this way:
But the big issue to hang around my poor neck once the comment period arrived? That mailers were sent out to people in Calgary, advertising the meeting, and that this was done from the office budgets of more than a dozen of my colleague MPs. As I explained, the mailings were printed by the House of Commons, stuffed into envelopes and mailed by the House, according to rules all MPs must respect. The point was also made that the prime minister uses this technique more than any other MP, flooding other ridings (like mine of Halton) with pro-government material. Like, yawn.
I left it to another person to bring up the current scandal about Conservatives laundering national election money through local ridings. Then the crowd shouted the guy down. And that was it. The two sat and grumbled for a while. Shot more videotape. But when a CBC television cameraman started mousing around their corner of the room, the ops fled.
Now is it just me or is a theme evolving...."my poor neck"..."but this is Calgary, home of the ugliest emails that this poor little defenseless blog receives"...
But I digress.
Things get a little feisty and according to my understanding of the difference between 10%ers and franked mail...well let's watch Garth explain.
The final segment soon to follow along with a few observations.
Done and done. Garth Turner Unedited Part 6
The stirring finale to A Lost Tory Tours.
Once again to clarify. We did not run from the room. I approached the LPoC functionary who offered to explain the nuances of 10%ers and franked mail to me.
According to Garth this would be the fella that shouted me down. While I admit the right side of the room offered enthusiastic applause in response to the party operative's offer to shut me up, I hardly thought I was shouted down.
Chris continued to film and I took my seat and watched as a few more softballs were tossed. The most interesting was the one from the fella in the red and white jacket. Something about a looming LPoC leadership convention. I wonder who he might support?
Next up was the local riding president to pose her second question of the evening. Two out of eight, obviously a lady with much on her mind. As I listened it occurred to me that the next move was to take the fella from the LPC up on his offer.
I approached him politely (kneeling at the edge of the aisle and getting the attention of his pretty escourt who gave him the heads up) and asked to speak with him in the hall. Being an earnest and lawyerly young fella he agreed. You can see us leaving the room on the right side of the screen.
Outside he agreed to an on camera interview to explain how Liberal Mp's communications budgets were co-ordinated to make the Lost Tory Tour the resounding success it obviously is.
Unfortunately, Chris miscued on the camera and only a few seconds at the end of our discussion are caught on tape. Considering we bought the camera at Best Buy yesterday afternoon, Chris did a fine job.
As we taped (well not taped but I explained that) outside the hall we were joined by three older gentlemen who stood off camera. Two of the three were clearly unimpressed. The third who had a decidedly sunnier disposition asked to take my picture with the young lawyer and can be heard commenting at the end of our tape, something to the effect that I asked good questions.
Regardless, that image of me is the one that appears on Garth's blog, although my lawyer friend appears to have been deleted from our photo-op. Sad really, he was a nice fella.
Garth also makes reference in his blog to the CBC cameraman. Chris gets sufficient shots of him over the duration. Here is the interesting part. The picture of Chris that appears on Garth's blog must be directly from the "CBC" camera. At no time that we were aware of did anyone other than the cameraman approach us to take pics in the meeting hall.
Now this poses a number of other questions. I'll pose those at a later date but I do encourage you to let your imagination run amok.
And finally watch the body language of Garth under questioning and the greazy eyeball he shoots at Chris when I was leaving the room.
Nuff said....Garth turner Unedited Part 6
Some final thoughts.
Chris is a young man from Cape Breton who came to Alberta to work because there in none there. On the way home he commented to me as follows:
"We don't have enough problems back home in Cape Breton that these guys have to come out here to create problems or to fix something that aint broke."
And that Mr.Turner is the real essence of what this was all about. You can wax poetic on your blog all you want, hell you can even piss our money away to promote yourself....these things are apparently all legal.
Just don't expect these two citizens to like it.
I speak for myself and Chris does the same. No conspiracy here sir. Unedited is the way to go!
Syncro
UPDATE
I meant to do this earlier but got distracted with the tech angle of all this. Here is mypersonal invitation to last nights event as it appears on Garth.ca
Garth
Thanks for the clarification. BTW, as I am not a member of any political party, no membership lists will be forthcoming.
I’m also heartened to hear that no “new” money is being spent promoting your tour and assume this is “old” money that was left laying around.
Any chance you might provide a list of the 15 constituency offices who ponied up? It might make for some interesting reading.
And finally. Being neither a member of any political party or a disgruntled income trust investor, how would I go about getting an invitation to your Calgary shindig at MRC?
Is this invitation only? Tickets required?
Thanks in advance.
Syncro
Dear Mr. Syncro; Please accept this invitation to attend the Valgary Town Hall meeting. The pleasure of your company is requested. — Garth
Unfortunately I have been unable to respond due to unforeseen technical gremlins that will not allow me to post to Garth.ca.
If anybody out there is familiar with any of the denizens of Garth's blog I would appreciate if you could direct them this way.
Thanx.
Syncro
Upperdate
I would seem that I've been outed by a regular reader at Garth.ca. This of course would not have been necessary had I been able to post at Garth's site but the aforementioned technical difficulties are still in effect. It seems Digital Democracy has some limitations and challenging Garth on the facts seems to be a big one.
Regardless, my outing :
Steve on 09.13.07 4:24 pm said:
So that was you huh Bob? At least get a leather jacket that has as few pieces as possible. It does look like you decided on the cheapest jacket just made out of scraps.
Nope Steve,
It wasn’t Bob. It was LLoyd, or rather it was Syncrodox as he likes to style himself. He of the tatty black vinyl jacket who is a BT tho protests that he’s really not one of them but a small “c” conservative. Whatever.
He’s put up a series of You Tube videos of Garth’s TH in Calgary. With quite the written commentary to go with it. An awful lot of explanation even before one sees the videos. Mostly to apologize for the quality and of course to get his con-style witty jabs in.
Perceptions are funny things no?
Geo
Sadly, Geo neglected to provide a link to my site. It might have been edifying for other readers of The Turner Report to get access to some Garth Unedited video.
Now it would seem that informed reader Geo and Steve before her (who in an earlier comment states he was at the meeting) take issue with my attire. Although Geo does mention my "con style witty jabs", which I assume are much different than "lib style witty jabs".
Garth offers one here in response to a commentor:
Have you started you French lessons yet? — Garth
By Myron on 09.13.07 10:08 am
May wee mon cher ami Garth. Je parlay francais oosi, ay voo ..?!
You are an embarrassment to this blog, let alone to your country. — Garth
Geo, I'm sorry my wit doesn't meet this high standard.
Now onto my leather jacket. Did you happen to notice the Canadian flag embroidered on the left chest? That jacket was given to me by my Grandfather and was bought through The Royal Canadian Legion. He wore it with pride and I choose to wear it the same way.
If it doesn't meet your fashion approval, so be it. I do also find it interesting that this was your biggest complaint, but then again in some quarters fashion probably does trump fact.
And finally Geo, I stand by my statement that I have never been a member of any political party. As you may or may not know The BT's is a blogroll in the same way Liblogs, Progblogs and Libertyblogs are. Given my self identification as a small c-conservative the Bt's is my obvious blogroll home.
Then again, perceptions are funny, no?
Syncro
Monday, September 03, 2007
Puffins, Apologists and Apartachicks
Good day All!!
I know that the Puffin bit is passe but it does seem to have legs. By now you all know that Deputy Leader of the LPC Mike (Iggy Puff) Ignatieff recently waxed poetic on the virtues of the Puffin. Now I'll be out front here and admit I've never met a Puffin.
That said, I'm sure Puffins are fine and upstanding citizens of Canada. The fact that Iggy is fascinated by their propensity for hiding their excrement is noteworthy. Not because I say so but rather because this string has continued to play out to the point that some 'heavies" from the MSM are now weighing in.
This from Susan Delacourt of The Toronto Star:
Editors Note: Please click the link and pay attention to the name of the ship that floated all things Liberal. Some of the more/least salient points:
"The puffin is a noble bird," Ignatieff proclaimed.
The next day, as caucus was winding up, reporters were looking for some amusing material for weekend features and asked Ignatieff to expand on his views of the puffin's nobility. Gamely, he obliged and recited some trivia he'd learned from the tour, including the fact that the little bird mated for life and hid its own waste in one place.
"It's a noble bird because it has good family values. They stay together for 30 years. I'm not kidding. They lay one egg and they put their excrement in one place. They hide their excrement. They hide their excrement!
They have good family values. They flap their wings very hard and they work like hell. This seems to me a symbol for what our party should be," he said.
"The puffin is not anybody's hero right off the bat, but you see those little flappy wings and how it works and those good family values and you start to warm to the puffin."
The reporters, including this one, were highly amused – in a light-hearted way. That was the object of Ignatieff's little dissertation on the puffin.
Susan....ummmm....yesterday Iggy Puff learned some trivia...today it becomes a dissertation? That is one bad ass Prof.
Editors Note: Did you click the link? Quick quiz. What was the name of the boat? This will become pertinent later.
Back to Sue:
You wouldn't know it, though, from some of the scandalized reaction to the remarks – what kind of numbskull compares his party to an animal that hides its excrement? How dare he give the Conservatives ammunition to attack the Liberals? (Just as an aside, how would that work, exactly? Are Prime Minister Stephen Harper's attack-addicted gang going to run TV ads in which Dion appears as a puffin? Wouldn't that actually be kind of endearing?)
I don't know Sue. Would he be hiding his excrement in little brown envelopes?
Editors Note: Pop quiz. What was the name of that boat again?
Anyways, more Sue:
Humour seems to have gone out of fashion in politics in Harper's Ottawa. It's difficult to explain why that's happened. Even political comedy isn't as funny or as popular as it once was. Several months back, a columnist in the Ottawa Citizen noted how veteran CBC comedian Rick Mercer isn't as funny as he used to be, because Mercer now cultivates celebrities instead of mocking them.
So...It's Harper's fault that Mercer is no longer funny. There must have been something in that sandwich that Harper made him. Do you think Mercer got reality germs on him or cooties? But I digress.
You know what Sue. I could spend hours deconstructing what you pass off as journalism (did you graduate from Ryerson perchance?) but lets cut to the chase.
The name of the boat that the Liberal brain trust went looking for whales on(out of season I might add) was The Atlantic Puffin.
Think about it Sue. What might have happened if they had chartered the Atlantic Pogge or the Atlantic EEL or the Nasty Bad Business.
Apologizing for the disertations of the Deputy Leader may have been beyond even your "objectivity".
And finally, I give you the ultimate kiss of death vis a vis credibility .
Syncro
* No Puffins were hurt in the making of this blog.
I know that the Puffin bit is passe but it does seem to have legs. By now you all know that Deputy Leader of the LPC Mike (Iggy Puff) Ignatieff recently waxed poetic on the virtues of the Puffin. Now I'll be out front here and admit I've never met a Puffin.
That said, I'm sure Puffins are fine and upstanding citizens of Canada. The fact that Iggy is fascinated by their propensity for hiding their excrement is noteworthy. Not because I say so but rather because this string has continued to play out to the point that some 'heavies" from the MSM are now weighing in.
This from Susan Delacourt of The Toronto Star:
Editors Note: Please click the link and pay attention to the name of the ship that floated all things Liberal. Some of the more/least salient points:
"The puffin is a noble bird," Ignatieff proclaimed.
The next day, as caucus was winding up, reporters were looking for some amusing material for weekend features and asked Ignatieff to expand on his views of the puffin's nobility. Gamely, he obliged and recited some trivia he'd learned from the tour, including the fact that the little bird mated for life and hid its own waste in one place.
"It's a noble bird because it has good family values. They stay together for 30 years. I'm not kidding. They lay one egg and they put their excrement in one place. They hide their excrement. They hide their excrement!
They have good family values. They flap their wings very hard and they work like hell. This seems to me a symbol for what our party should be," he said.
"The puffin is not anybody's hero right off the bat, but you see those little flappy wings and how it works and those good family values and you start to warm to the puffin."
The reporters, including this one, were highly amused – in a light-hearted way. That was the object of Ignatieff's little dissertation on the puffin.
Susan....ummmm....yesterday Iggy Puff learned some trivia...today it becomes a dissertation? That is one bad ass Prof.
Editors Note: Did you click the link? Quick quiz. What was the name of the boat? This will become pertinent later.
Back to Sue:
You wouldn't know it, though, from some of the scandalized reaction to the remarks – what kind of numbskull compares his party to an animal that hides its excrement? How dare he give the Conservatives ammunition to attack the Liberals? (Just as an aside, how would that work, exactly? Are Prime Minister Stephen Harper's attack-addicted gang going to run TV ads in which Dion appears as a puffin? Wouldn't that actually be kind of endearing?)
I don't know Sue. Would he be hiding his excrement in little brown envelopes?
Editors Note: Pop quiz. What was the name of that boat again?
Anyways, more Sue:
Humour seems to have gone out of fashion in politics in Harper's Ottawa. It's difficult to explain why that's happened. Even political comedy isn't as funny or as popular as it once was. Several months back, a columnist in the Ottawa Citizen noted how veteran CBC comedian Rick Mercer isn't as funny as he used to be, because Mercer now cultivates celebrities instead of mocking them.
So...It's Harper's fault that Mercer is no longer funny. There must have been something in that sandwich that Harper made him. Do you think Mercer got reality germs on him or cooties? But I digress.
You know what Sue. I could spend hours deconstructing what you pass off as journalism (did you graduate from Ryerson perchance?) but lets cut to the chase.
The name of the boat that the Liberal brain trust went looking for whales on(out of season I might add) was The Atlantic Puffin.
Think about it Sue. What might have happened if they had chartered the Atlantic Pogge or the Atlantic EEL or the Nasty Bad Business.
Apologizing for the disertations of the Deputy Leader may have been beyond even your "objectivity".
And finally, I give you the ultimate kiss of death vis a vis credibility .
Syncro
* No Puffins were hurt in the making of this blog.
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Garths leadership is now in full swing. If youd like to know more, call Tony McLaren.
Garths tour out west was not only to bash PM Harper and try to prop up the dying leadership of Dion (making good impressions) but to bolster his leadership chances. The person making the comments about Dion at this town hall was NOT a conincidence, but carefully planned.
He may be a jerk, but hes not stupid.