Afghanistan: Synonymous With Liberal Hypocracy

In September 2001, after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, Minister of National Defence Art Eggleton proposed sending 100 Canadian Forces members to identify and neutralize al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan and topple the Taliban regime. The purpose was to defend Canada's national interests, ensure Canadian leadership in world affairs, and help Afghanistan rebuild. In October 2001, Canada announced it's contribution to Operation Apollo. Shortly thereafter, Operation Anaconda began. It was during this operation that Canadian snipers broke, and re-broke the kill record for a long distance sniper kill. In 2003, Canadian Forces moved to Kabul as part of ISAF. In 2005, Defence Minister Bill Graham doubled the troop deployment to 1200 members. In 2006, Canada was a leader in southern Afghanistan with TFA commanding a multi national unit. It was during this time that Canada extended it's commitments with the introduction of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams. This leadership was not without a cost: recognising the resolve of Canadian Forces members, the Taliban began to fight back. Numerous missions followed, as did numerous deaths. Smothered by freedom, the Taliban resorted to roadside bombings. The Taliban wasn't the only party resorting to dirty tricks. Back in Canada, the NDP and Liberal parties were suffering at the hand of the electorate and started resorting to their own dirty tricks by trying to pin the deaths of Canadian soldiers on Canada's newly elected government. Fast forward to December, 2009. Falling badly in the polls, with the Conservative leading by a margin at times as large as 14%, the Liberal Party under the direction of Michael Ignatieff attacks the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper for covering up the war crimes of Canadian soldiers that out of the other side of his mouth he says they didn't commit. It's said that war is hell. So is watching our official Leader of the Opposition during Question Period. He say he supports torture when he's not leading a political party. Now that he's leading one, he wants to make his opponents pay for what his own party didn't take adequate steps to prevent. You can accuse the Conservatives of trying to hide something, but when it comes to Liberals the evidence speaks for itself. It's tragic enough that so many Canadians died because they actually believed that they could bring peace to Afghanistan, but the real tragedy is the cheap political points trying to be scored by opposition leaders at home. They betray their own countrymen with false indignation. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff wants you to believe that he thinks Canadian soldiers did everything right. He also expects you to remove yourself from reality and accept that they were somehow guilty of deliberately handing really nice Afghanis over to Afghan authorities so that they could be knowingly tortured. Luckily for us, it only took three years to mention it. Not so lucky for someone getting thrown in a prison over there after getting a wicked spanking. Regardless of your political leanings you should ask yourself the following: without the wisdom or willingness to envision a positive future for Afghanistan, what makes Liberals think they have the moral authority to govern Canada?

Back At The Ranch.....

The Duke boys were all feelin' merry. But Mary didn't like it, so they all jumped for joy....

No; actually, I'm being over-run by leftards. Anyone wanna join the fun over at MacLeans?

It's a great time. You get to read how so many Liberal - Lovers explain how they admire the sacrifices of our Canadian soldiers who have done everything right, but they can't explain how those soldiers that did everything right also did everything wrong and somebody got beaten with a shoe.

Remember, folks: these are the same idiots that cheered when George Bush was beaten by a shoe.

I'm sure they mean to mean well.

A Closer Look At The Truth

All over the country, Liberals are crying foul over the recent ten percenter mailed out to constituents featuring what appears to be the Liberal consensus on Israel's treatment of it's neighbors. Let's look closely at what the pamphlet really says.

On the top Left of the insert, we see the Conservative claim that the Government of Canada has led the world in refusing participation in Durban 2 hate fest against Israel. Upon reviewing our recent history, this appears to be true. We define proof as "evidence sufficient to convince". The evidence here seems to indicate that the first statement is true.

On the top Right of the insert, we see the claim that Liberals willingly participated in the overtly anti-Semitic Durban 1 Conference. According to Wikepedia, after four days of deadlocked negotiations, the United States and Israeli delegations withdrew from the conference. "The draft documents had stated "deep concern" at the "increase of racist practices of Zionism and anti-Semitism" and talked of the emergence of "movements based on racism and discriminatory ideas, in particular the Zionist movement, which is based on racial superiority". Alternative proposals, which the U.S. had supported, from Norway, acting as a mediator, and Canada were rejected by Israel. Apparently, Israel wasn't happy with our government. Our Liberal government, of which Jean Chretien held a majority. Is there any truth here? You decide.

On the Left middle of the insert, the Conservative claim that the Government of Canada led the defunding of the Hamas led Palestinian Authority. According to CBC, Peter MacKay said: "Not a red cent to Hamas," MacKay said on CBC's Inside Politics. "This is a terrorist organization." If the CBC printed it, you know it must be true.

On the Right middle of the insert, the Conservative claim that Liberals were against the defunding of Hamas and asked that Hezbollah be delisted as a terrorist organization. Well, there are two sides to this story. First, there's no doubt in my mind that Liberal Irwin Cotler does not support Hamas. He's rather sane. Then there's Michael Ingatieff. Here's how one person analyzed Michael's claim that Israel committed war crimes. I don't actually believe that Mr. Ignatieff hates Jews, but his own words didn't help him here. As for supporting Hezbollah, line up in the parade. The Conservative claim of Liberal support for Hezbollah is true, if you can believe the Canadian media. If you can't read, there's plenty of video footage.

On the bottom Left, the Conservative claim that they strongly backed Israel's right to self-defense against Hezbollah during the 2006 war: Guilty as charged.

On the bottom Right, the Conservative claim that Michael Ignatieff accused Israel of committing war crimes: In his own words, Michael admitted it. Why would anyone make this up?

Now, would someone ask Joe Volpe where in these two pages it say that any Liberal is an anti-Semite? Pizza lovers, yes. Anti-Semites, no. Perhaps it's just guilty feelings.

UPDATE: Ariela Cotler explains the truth from her point of view. You may not like it, but it's only fitting that I post this in defence of her husband, Irwin Cotler. As I said above, his feelings toward Israel were never up for interpretation to me. Of particular interest in the opinion piece is the following line: "If the Conservative mailer is asking me who is a true leader, my answer is an ethical and moral leader who can apologize when they err, and not a leader who distorts the truth and cynically divides Canadians for partisan gain."

I asked myself that question before casting my ballot the last few times, and it was my decision along with many others that resulted in the Conservative Party of Canada forming government.

Thanks for bringing it up, Ariela.

It's Enough To Make You Sick...

There has been so much discussion about the Government of Canada's response to the H1N1 virus that one could be led to believe that we are living on a different planet, or perhaps under seige by Visitors of unknown origins. ( Sorry, but I had to plug the new ABC tv series, it's a great distraction from all the good things we have to appreciate about living in Canada.) According to Flucount, Canada is suffering approximately 3 deaths per million infections. According to MADD, it is significantly less than the fatalities from Alcohol related accidents in Canada. Here's a simple truth: we could argue extensively about whatever cause we believe in until the cows come home without ever changing enyone elses opinion. For example, the anti-American's in our government will use the death of Canadian soldiers to promote their hatred and misunderstanding of our southern neighbors. They will point to statistics, just like I did in the first paragraph. They will not tell you how many farming accidents resulted in death in Canada during the same period, nor will they call for a ban on farming. Here's another truth: Until we have a majority government, under any political banner, you will enjoy more of the same governance. A government constantly at war with itself is in the difficult position of having to defend everything while accomplishing little. If you are unhappy with the current government you will have the opportunity to vote them out. If you are unhappy with the opposition MP's send them a message. They and their advisers can do much better than calling people liars, especially when they've held the opinion that doing less and doing it later more than met their expectations. People need healing, not hypocrisy.

Media Gone Crackers

I couldn't help notice the latest 'scandal' in the Telegraph Journal. Here is a sample: "When Harper took the host, "everybody just paused and said, 'What did he do with it?'"‚" said one official who watched the pool feed with reporters who were not inside St. Thomas Church in Memramcook. "You could see he was, 'Uh oh, I don't know what to do with this.'"‚" The curiosity among Catholics has not gone unnoticed among Liberal insiders in Ottawa, either. Henneberry said he has received a call on Harper's actions from a concerned Catholic, and he doubts that she is the only one puzzled and perturbed. "She said she was very upset," he said, adding he had not seen the footage. "She said, 'All weekend long it has been bothering me and I know I can't do something about it, but someone should.' "She can't be the only one in this country that is thinking that." Why not? Is Mr Harper supposed to bow to every religion? "The issue was initially raised by Monsignor Brian Henneberry, vicar general and chancellor in the Diocese of Saint John. “It's worse than a faux pas, it's a scandal from the Catholic point of view,” he told the Saint John Telegraph-Journal." Harper's in Italy today, where their Prime Minister is accused of banging anything with a heartbeat, and our scandal consists of "Did he or did he not eat the wafer?" It's no wonder that other people see Canadians as bland and boring. I guess that's how the cookie crumbles.

History Repeats Itself

RIP MJ. For those of you not old enough to remember, this isn't the first time that a superstar has died.

Who Pays For These Studies?

From CTV News: Resuscitation at birth increases risk of low IQ. Children who have to be resuscitated at birth appear to be more likely to score poorly on IQ tests, even if they appeared healthy at first, report British researchers. The findings, published on the website of The Lancet, come from Dr, David Odd of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, U.K. The authors looked at children who had been resuscitated at birth but had no symptoms of neonatal encephalopathy, a term used to describe the signs of acute brain injury, such as seizures or altered responsiveness or tone. They also looked at babies who had been resuscitated and had received neonatal care for symptoms of encephalopathy in their first month of life. They then compared the two groups to more than 10,000 children who had not needed to be resuscitated. The researchers gave the children IQ tests when they were about eight years old. A low IQ score was determined to be less than 80. The researchers found that the children who had developed symptoms of neonatal encephalopathy had more than a six-fold increased risk of a low IQ score compared with the children who had been born healthy. But even children who had appeared healthy after birth but had been resuscitated had a 65 per cent increased risk for a low IQ score. I now know why ignorance is bliss. "He's not going to ace his SAT, so let him go!" Given the choice, I think I would rather be stupid than dead. Just ask some of our politicians.

Duffy's Defence

From The Guardian: The comments in Halifax came on the heels of sensational comments at a Conservative meeting in Winsloe last week, and again in the Senate, where he suggested Ghiz may get the “shaft” by getting in bed with the premier of Newfoundland, and that the sight of two politicians in bed was “... a grotesque scene.” According to a reader poll in the same newspaper, seventy five percent of Prince Edward Islanders think that Senator Michael Duffy's comments were unfairly directed at them. This is complete nonsense. If people had read the transcript, available here in hansard, they would understand that the Senator was speaking on their behalf, not against them. You can use all the metaphors you want to; none will matter if you can't understand the substance of what that message is. If success is defined as the realization of a goal, then Sen. Duffy succeeded. He wanted to draw attention to the fact that Premier Robert Ghiz was lending his support to Premier Danny Williams. What's the big deal if other premiers jump on the bandwagon with Danny Williams? None, if they want to get thrown off the wagon and run over by the horses upon their first disagreement with him. In this particular case, Mr. Williams is unhappy about the recent changes to the equalization formula. It was a fine formula back in the days when Newfoundland & Labrador were have not provinces. The agreement of the Mulroney government in 1985 changed that. Our friendly neighbors to the North of us were given rights to the federally owned oil fields so that they may some day develop them and reduce their dependence on the rest of Canada. A proud moment for them indeed, but not good enough for Danny. He wants it all: revenue from off shore oil and revenue from equalization. Perhaps Senator Duffy should have explained it more clearly, that by conceding to Mr. Williams, PEI would be a net loser under the equalization program. Perhaps our usually jovial Senator thought that the 75% of Islanders that accuse him of thinking they're stupid thought that they really were intelligent. Therein lies the true error.

InAWEguration

Was there a human being on this planet that wasn't consumed with the inauguration of President Barack Hassan Obama?

After briefly flipping through the channels, I remembered something.

UPDATE: Obama popped into Canada for a minute, and the world went nuts. Andrew Coyne has all the details.