It's time to drag out the heavy duty thread titles. I guess Al Franken may yet want to reclaim that to throw at Norm Coleman but I'm going to borrow it in the meantime. David Akin does a little fisking on a speech Stephen Harper delivered today. I'm only going to repeat one of the quotes Akin supplies and you can follow the link for a few additional points. I couldn't let this pass:
As we know, the opposition formed a coalition to try and prevent us from even bringing our Budget forward.
If we had a smiley library here I'd be looking for the one that snorts derisively. The economic statement Jim Flaherty tried to pass in November — aka Flaherty's Folly — wasn't a budget, contained no stimulus measures and didn't even acknowledge the looming financial crisis. When the opposition pointed out that there was no there there, the government replied that it would be happy to consider methods to stimulate the economy and incorporate them into a budget. To be delivered in March on the normal schedule.
The threat of a coalition is the only reason Harper's government presented a budget on Jan. 28th and the only reason it contains something approaching a serious attempt to stimulate the economy, as haphazard and inadequate as those measures are.
It'll be interesting to see how many of the Serious People who kept trying to behave as though coalition and coup are synonyms will bother to note how blatantly our prime minister is lying to us.
H/t to The Jurist.
Very nice fisking by Akin indeed. I enjoyed that.
Harper's own lies puzzle me more, for this reason: they are openly boastful and sneering, as well as untrue. Do you think of Canadians as typically boastful and sneering? I don't either. So how did we end up with all these greasy guys who seem to think that politicians have to talk that way? And why does anyone vote for them?
how did we end up with all these greasy guys who seem to think that politicians have to talk that way?
Harper's political role models are movement conservatives like Newt Gingrich.
And why does anyone vote for them?
Wish I knew.
Because they're stupid. Stupid people deserve representation too. But this political force ought not to have any influence.
harpo is stupid but he's smart enough to be able to take advantage of his base. And its all about exploitation.