False
Equivalence

Twins Separated at Birth?

Just how dumb do the HarperCons think we are? On second thought, there must be a reservoir of stupidity somewhere in the country or the ReformaTories wouldn't have their 39 percent "majority." During the last Parliament Jockular John Baird, the slime minister's pet bulldog was in charge of baring his teeth and spreading spittle and insults across the floor at any opposition member who would dare to question King Peevie Stevie or his herd of fenceposts, some with hair. But this time around Dean del Mastro seems to be the go to guy when loud and stupid is what is required.

When I have a chance I like to watch the high low lights of the days infantile behaviour in the House of Parliament during lunch here on the Left Coast. I find it handy for a laugh or two, and especially good if I need an emetic to bring up something harmful I may have accidentally ingested - but Dean, who might be a human bean, was right out to lunch today as he accused the Liberals, and the campaign of Frank Valeriote, of "criminal" acts - namely robo-calls arranged by the Liberal candidate's campaign to remind voters that Marty Burke, the candidate for the Canadian Taliban, might be a threat to the reproductive freedom of Canadian women. Overall I find it amazing that this issue keeps coming up, but I guess we'll just have to wait until all the fundamentalists who know how everyone should conduct their life join the dinosaurs on the extinct pile before we can actually address issues that matter.

I imagine Conrad Black is tossing and turning in his cell down in Florida as his erstwhile Flagship loss leader Con propaganda sheet the National Post takes the lead in trying to hold the HarperCons accountable for their nationwide exercise last May in voter suppression and other forms of Electoral Fraud. It isn't like the HarperCons haven't been caught cheating the election process before. After claiming to be as pure as the driven snow for two years or more over the "in and out" scam, they eventually had to basically plead guilty, throw a couple staff members under the bus, pay a ridiculously small fine (for such an affront to democracy) and carry on, claiming it was just a mistake made by overzealous supporters. Today one article in the Post discussed the likelihood of "Pierre Poutine" actually appearing before Elections Canada and another discussed the so called "Abortion Robocalls."

Pierre may or may not show up, as we've seen in spite of the fact the HarperCons have nothing to hide, the infamous one man electoral fraudster who was being prepared to be thrown under the bus by the Harperites, now is refusing (on his lawyer's advice) to appear before Elections Canada. But del Mastro's attempt to compare the robocalls that went out at the behest of Frank Valeriote's campaign to the nationwide fraudulent activity that has been surfacing almost daily on the HarperCon side is laughable.

The behaviour attributed to the HarperCons in 11 17 324261, hell I give up trying to keep count, is very different than what is alleged to have happened in Guelph - to the point where it isn't even comparing apples and oranges, it's like comparing peaches and ROCKS. On the one hand you have one party whose thugs use "burner" cell phones, using phoney numbers and addresses and names and then lying by claiming to be calling from Elections Canada or representing the Liberal Party of Canada - and doing all this stuff to carefully targeted voters, in other words trying to suppress only the voters that the "intelligence" would indicate are likely to vote Liberal or NDP. On the other hand, Mr. Valeriote's campaign may have bent or broken a rule by not correctly identifying the party, but they were calls that were basically informing voters, UNTARGETED voters at large, what the policy was regarding reproductive rights of the candidates. As the Post explains:

Valeriote’s office would later claim the message was intended to correct the Mercury’s story that suggested he was not pro-choice. But missing from the message was any mention of Valeriote or that his campaign had sponsored it — as required under Elections Canada rules.

The recipients of the robocall were chosen from a list of voters, but not filtered for party preference, the Valeriote campaign says. Unspecified thousands of voters received the call.

To this observer, this is a mistake, or a broken rule, if the Reformatories actually were doing half of the stuff that has been alleged, those are crimes that warrant putting lots of Reformatories in their brand new jails and holding another FAIR and honest election. As pointed out at the Exile two weeks ago:

.......there is now a permanent taint on the legitimacy of the Conservative majority government. Only a new, closely monitored election can restore legitimacy and they sure as hell aren’t going to call an early one because they’ll lose.

It’s a cancer. They will not be able to enact the big-ticket items on their agenda. Everything will be questioned.

The Harper Government™ is now a very lame duck.

The malaise from the Sponsorship Scandal still affects the Liberal Party of Canada. This – which all signs point to being the biggest, darkest political scandal in Canada’s history – will destroy the Conservatives.

Parties that were exponentially less sleazy than Harper's gang have been sent to the political graveyard for much less.

Female Pols turn the Tables
........... on the Boys

With Ricky "frothy" Santorum, Rush and the rest of the RePukes to the south trying to re-litigate Roe v. Wade to our south and some of Harper's minions bringing it up on this side of the border - in spite of the Spiteful One's denials - too many pasty white men in suits are busy trying to get all over women's business this year. So some female politicians in the U.S. have decided that turn about is fair play. According to the Dayton Daily News:

An Ohio State Senator is turning the tables on men seeking to regulate women’s access to reproductive health. Sen. Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) has introduced legislation regulating men’s access to erectile dysfunction drugs........snippety doo dah

Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way.

The Cleveland Democrat introduced Senate Bill 307 this week.

A critic of efforts to restrict abortion and contraception for women, Turner says she is concerned about men’s reproductive health… Turner said if state policymakers want to legislate women’s health choices through measures such as House Bill 125, known as the ‘Heartbeat bill,’ they should also be able to legislate men’s reproductive health.

Nina Turner isn't the only woman attempting to turn the tables on the old white guys either:

There have been similar efforts in other states. An Illinois bill would require men to watch a “horrific video” on the side effects of Viagra. In Virginia, Sen. Janet Howell (D) submitted a bill requiring men to undergo a digital rectal exam before recieving a prescription for erectile disfunction drugs.

Hey, if a woman has to submit to "vaginal insertion" style ultra-sound in Virginia, what's good for the goose is good for the gander (I didn't really notice the pun coming). Anyone with a brain (RePuklican base exempted here) knows you don't have to stick an object up a woman's business to see an ultra-sound image of the fetus within.