Archive for the ‘PETER MACKAY’ Tag
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO A COLUMN IN THE NATIONAL POST
Christie Blatchford seems to have become The Conservatives’ chief apologist.
Her apology here though seems totally unneeded.
I believe in these two cases of dropped candidates, the bone-headed people involved would have made perfect Conservative candidates.
Pranks? Isn’t this the party of robo-calls and frat-boy negative advertising?
Isn’t this the party of never telling the truth to people?
Of never giving a straight answer?
The party of not complying with officials attempting to investigate misdeeds?
The party of hiding the many stupid things it has done?
The party of Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Nigel Wright, and other charmers?
The party of slavishly catering to special interests?
The party of giving the finger to many of the world’s serious concerns?
The party of John Baird who resembles nothing so much as a mad dog when he argues with people?
The party of Peter MacKay, a man who had an affair with a subordinate, later harassed her and called her a dog in public, and then lied about it as well as a man who has demonstrated incompetence in almost every portfolio in the cabinet?
The party of the absolute thug, Patrick Brazeau?
The party of Maxime Bernier, who left top secret NATO papers at his biker girlfriend’s house for weeks?
The party of Pierre Poilievre, perhaps the most seriously twisted sister ever in Parliament?
I just cannot believe what an opportunity the party has missed with these two new fellows, each surely potential minister material.
It’s a shame, I guess that’s the price you pay for political correctness.
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO THE NATIONAL POST
Peter Potatohead likely holds the Canadian political record for the number of government portfolios to which a complete mediocrity was appointed. It is, after all, a very thin bench with which Harper works.
Apart from that let’s remember Peter’s idea of ethics.
He had an affair with someone who was effectively his direct subordinate as Deputy Leader.
When she bailed out, Mr Potatohead went on the grand tour of news media, lamely whining to each one about what she had done to him!
Still later, he insulted her in Parliament, within hearing of several, yet he refused to apologize and indeed lied about ever having done so.
Our glorious PM seconded him in the outright lie.
A secondary thought: Those two – John Baird and Peter MacKay – “big-name” retirements from the Conservatives months before an election are often described as rats leaving a sinking ship.
Maybe, but I think there is another explanation, at least as likely.
Mr Harper is a notoriously humorless and autocratic and, frankly, boring man. After the best part of a decade attending meetings with this grim man who allows virtually no independence of expression, might it be that some insiders simply have reached the limits of their endurance?
JOHN CHUCKMAN
POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL
While Chretien’s observation is already shared by most citizens genuinely concerned with international affairs, his testimony still is welcome.
Chretien is one of our most respected former prime ministers, a man who is admired by a number of world statesmen as an ethical statesman and a remarkable politician.
The grotesque and clownish stunts of Peter Kent, Maxime Bernier, John Baird, Helena Guergis, Peter MacKay, Rahim Jaffer, and the bloodless, narrow ideology of their leader do not go unnoticed in the world.
There is an inherent lack of commitment by this government to openness, honest communication, genuine democratic principles, and balanced human rights.
Everything from cheap stunts like pernicious robo-calls, ceaseless negative advertising, ugly outbursts, and blatant catering to special interests reduces our stature.
There is also – and quite in conflict with the historic role of Conservative Parties in Canada – a marked spirit of following America’s lead in almost all matters of international consequence – almost a visibly servile posture.
Informed people in countries around the world – politicians, members of international organizations, and private citizens – note these things and their goodwill towards our country must inevitably be reduced.
And this has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with core traditional conservative principles.
It is strictly a reflection of the ugly ideological bent of this government.
A bent demonstrated in everything from contempt for Parliament, contempt for important international forums and organizations, unbalanced and almost viciously partisan statements on the Middle East, and its cheap way of expressing itself on many solemn occasions, such as the recent death of the widely-liked President of Venezuela.
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“Talking to other leftists and anti-american socialists is obviously going to get the desired result of Canada being disliked. I fully expect nothing being done by our current governemnt to be gain acceptance with the worldwide pro terrorist socialist alliance. Nothing to read here….and to think a criminal thug like Chretien should be given any further respectability is beyond me.”
You are too uninformed to comment with any meaning.
A number of prominent world leaders have in the past made public statements of admiration for Chretien.
No one but Mr. Netanyahu – a genuine thug who has committed murder, piracy, and theft – expresses admiration for Harper.
JOHN CHUCKMAN
POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL
Amazing, our robot-ideologue gets something for once.
We have no interests in Mali and no interest in Mali.
But those facts didn’t stop Harper’s most brainless minister from floating the idea that we should get involved in America’s next foreign adventure in mass murder.
I guess Harper received enough feedback to convince him that the public could not stomach his Minister of Rescue Helicopters for Fishing Trips’ brainless proposal.
Concern over Mali, apart from normal humanitarian concerns, is solely the territory of America’s giant blundering military-intelligence establishment.
But that is the case in so many other matters too, and was the case in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya.
We did waste a good many lives and a great deal of treasure in some of those places just in order to gain “creds” with America’s military Frankenstein.
And this is, after call, a government whose ministers’ surest route to a big appointment is to suddenly blurt something out, almost like a devotee at a Pentecostal Church’s speaking in tongues while writhing on the carpet, about fighting for another place in which Canadians in general have no interest, Israel.
That certainly was the case for Peter Kent and is an ongoing obsession for John Baird, aka the junk yard dog of vicious attacks and gushes of seemingly pointless enthusiasms.
I suppose we should be grateful for small things: we will not be winging our way over to Mali, dribbling away billions of dollars we don’t have, just to interfere in matters about which we have zero understanding.
[Note: Shortly later, Canada offered limited use of a C-17 transport plane to France, whose military had agreed to do America’s dirty work in Mali. Fittingly, given the clownish nature of our Minister of Defense, after some fanfare in sending it off, the plane had a problem and was stuck on the runway for some time.]
JOHN CHUCKMAN
POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL
Peter MacKay, as always, talks as the fool he is, a fool who doesn’t understand the extent of his own foolishness.
Among the Harper government’s clearest achievements in international affairs is reducing the country to a length of soiled toilet paper trailing from the Pentagon’s rear end.
We have zero interests in Mali and zero interest in Mali.
There is nothing there for a rational state to fight over.
But the Pentagon is on a holy crusade, stretching over the face of the earth, for anything that might be in any way associated with what it perceives in its dim lights to be Islamic fundamentalism and terror.
It very much resembles an obsessed, insane Captain Ahab sailing the world’s seas to kill the white whale.
It is egged by the domestic lobby of America’s nasty little sidekick, Israel, a country whose mad leaders speak of nothing but war and assault and enemies and hatreds while they continue stealing the property of others and suppress 4.5 million people into utter hopelessness.
We are heading into a long period of senseless, pointless, and destructive conflicts inspired by the military-industrial complex and its Ahab-like search for the white whale.
Traditionally, Canada, a rational people with progressive views, would not even think of joining in such destructive stupidity.
But now this rational people are ruled by a 39% “majority” government of extreme ideology whose major goal is to play a role in international affairs as defined by the seething Captain Ahab.
We literally threw away billions of dollars and about a hundred and fifty lives to achieve absolutely nothing in Afghanistan.
And we wasted millions more in killing civilians and destroying property in Libya to help create a chaotic state whose leader the United States hated.
In state after state the United States is busy killing people, all innocent people by the standards of justice – in Yemen, in Bahrain, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, and in Syria (through its paid and supplied proxies).
In Egypt, it encourages the government to impose an unjust constitution just to secure the cooperation of that government.
In Iran, it threatens and blusters daily over nothing.
Its achievement in Iraq – besides a million killed, thousands crippled, two million refugees, and an advanced society reduced to poverty – is a nation effectively divided into pieces and endless internal conflict.
Fortunately, Canada played no role in the filthy business.
Repeating what it achieved in Iraq is, of course, America’s aim in Syria.
Israel’s mad leaders are gleeful for such murderous assistance, but no person of democratic and humane principles can possibly agree.
But we do not have a government today dedicated to such principles, and the whole world knows it and treats us with shame in international forums.
Happy New Year, Canada.
JOHN CHUCKMAN
POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL
I love the accompanying photo of Peter MacKay at the controls.
You can imagine the photographer or a public relations flak telling Pete to place his head at a certain angle so that his eyes, which are too close together, don’t disturb viewers.
The posture, too, was suggested to demonstrate a man in control.
And the subtle lighting on the face to make him stand out from the background.
But despite all their efforts, and likely a $100,000 invoice for the session, in the end all I see is a fool trying to pretend he’s serious.
Or a twelve-year old playing grown-up.
Yes, with a guy of this caliber in charge, changes are definitely called for in DND’s authority over costly acquisitions.
JOHN CHUCKMAN
POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY BELINDA STRONACH IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL
Sorry, Belinda, but this is just a mild rehash of notions that the nasty wing of the Republican Party mouthed a couple of decades ago.
We had ambitious politicians blubbering about everything from term limits to instituting a part-time government in Washington.
The skills and experience gained by thoughtful politicians in their careers are not contemptible stuff and, in a number of ways, serve the public well.
The problems facing national governments in today’s world – and I don’t mean just the current economic setback but all the immensity of globalization and world-scale problems like global warming and war – are complex and demanding, not the stuff for dabblers and part-timers.
Indeed, the idea that people would move regularly from industry into government and back again can be a formula for even greater influence of special interests in government.
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I’ve always defended Belinda against the stupidities of people like Peter MacKay.
But that does not mean that I accept her as in any way innovative or creative or even effective.
She was a sort-of CEO under daddy’s watchful eye, and she was a largely unsuccessful politician, leaving no lasting mark beyond a scandal.
So she is hardly qualified to offer advice in these matters.
And the advice she does offer is Newt Gingrich a la 1992.
Not impressive.
Again the formula of out of industry into government and back into industry is one for even more inappropriate influence by special interests.
JOHN CHUCKMAN
POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL
Did readers catch the anecdote yesterday about Peter “peanut brain” MacKay meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger, out on a good will tour, in B.C.?
Peter’s public words included the praise for the fact that B.C. and California share a border.
Arnold is reported to have looked perplexed but said nothing, knowing that the states of Washington and Oregon separate California from B.C.
Pure George Bush or Sarah Palin.
God, what a thin bench of talent the Conservatives have.
This is the man we entrust to make multi-billion dollar decisions and to deal with a very smart cookie like Gates?
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The F-35 is an expensive clunker for which Canada has no need.
From the Pentagon’s point of view, Canada and Australia and others are providing a subsidy to try improving the thing.
A strong country begins with a strong economy.
It truly is the height of folly to be making a gigantic and wasteful expenditure like this at this time.
People with genuine conservative instincts – those who pay their bills and believe in balanced budgets – will agree.
The trouble is Stephen Harper is an ideologue, an ideologue of American right-wing persuasion, and not a conservative at all.
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“The bigger issue down the road is what are the aircraft choices down the road that will be competitive against the Russian T-50 PAK, the Chinese J-20, and the joint venture Russian/India 5th GEN fighters.”
That is only an issue for American Pentagon worshipers.
One thing is certain, we should not foolishly subsidize the anxieties of such people.
Even were the F-35 a good plane, which it decidedly is not, it is not needed by Canada.
We have no genuine use for it, and any modest number we could afford would be absolutely militarily ineffective.
It’s a bad idea from every point of view, unless you are a Harper who sits smiling dreamily at the base of a giant American Bald Eagle statue in his rec-room.
JOHN CHUCKMAN
POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAILReading of Helena Guergis’s airport melt-down, I may have new sympathy for the unpleasant Rahim Jaffer, her husband.
Maybe there’s actually a good reason Rahim Jaffer (of drunk-driving, cocaine-possession, and getting-off-with-a-slap-on-the-wrist fame) does the desperate things he does?
He appears to be married to a lunatic.
And, yes, indeed, where were the RCMP tasers on this one, as someone above asked?
I guess they save that treatment for poor foreigners who can’t speak English and who are not junior cabinet ministers.
And even then, they need four officers against one person to “deploy” the taser.
The photo with the story only shows two RCMP officers with the ghastly Guergis.
God, the new Conservatives have pathetic ministerial material. Peter “we’ll fight for Israel” Kent, Helena “I’m God” Guergis, Peter “my ex is a dog” MacKay, Lisa “leave my documents behind” Raitt, Maxime “leave my secret papers at my biker gang girlfriend’s” Bernier, and so on.
Our election system is a terrible mess if its result is keeping a bunch of second- and third-raters like this running the country with about a third of the country’s support. We really do need serious election reform.
JOHN CHUCKMAN
POSTED RESPONSE TO AN EDITORIAL IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL
I believe in this case, as in so many others, Harper’s government has demonstrated sheer incompetence.
I doubt they set out to give men – mostly innocent farmers – over to torture. But as we’ve seen time and time again, the cabinet functions like a gang of Keystone Cops, from dropping top secrets in various places to sending body bags to native people’s reservations as preparation for the flu.
That tendency towards incompetence is exacerbated in its practical effects by a truly slavish admiration, almost a boy-scout devotion, to American government policy, something which of course induces very little use of independent thought. And we all know America has not been the least squeamish about human rights and filthy torture.
Some of the evil involved here is in Peter MacKay’s preacherly waving of hands and ranting when he knows perfectly well that he is lying through his teeth to protect his incompetent party.
But of course, Peter MacKay’s entire national career in politics has exhibited dishonesty, from his affair with a party subordinate to his lying about calling her a dog in Parliament and to his original broken word to a competitor for the leadership of the former Conservative party.
Peter MacKay is a proven ethical nullity.
But the true low note in evil here has been struck by Harper, with his filthy accusations about critics of a human-rights nightmare in Afghanistan blaming the brave soldiers.
Pure Rush Limbaugh. Is that the stuff now of Canada’s national politics, stuff dredged from the intellectual cesspools of American politics?
That is the kind of stuff which surely earns you a special place in hell.
JOHN CHUCKMAN
POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL
Richard Colvin is a genuine Canadian hero.
How rare it is to find an honest man in government, and rarer still to find one who puts his career at risk for hard truth.
What Colvin’s words say for the characters of the people who surround Harper is very unpleasant.
But what else would you expect?
Harper always supported America’s ghastly war crime of invading Iraq, and we know from countless examples in recent years that Harper’s idea of ethics almost define the banality of evil.
And Harper has no qualms about Israel’s several mass murders in Lebanon and Gaza. He’s gung ho for a state openly practicing ethnic-cleansing and apartheid.
Following America into the mire of Afghanistan has been terrible for Canada, squandering our nation’s reputation as well as lives and money while achieving nothing of worth.
As to Mr Peter “My word ain’t worth much” and “I call my ex a dog” Mackay’s attempts to throw dirt, well consider the source.
Apart from all his other accomplishments, MacKay has demonstrated his intellectual weakness in several poorly-handled jobs.
His word carries no weight weight in any balance of arguments.
Particularly when he is aiming to undermine a man of distinguished achievements, substantial intellect, and genuine honor.
Good God, Mackay, is just plain pathetic.
Harper’s crowd has brought us a stinking copy of right-wing Republican shabby politics.
The stuff about the letters to certain constituents deemed Jewish and containing suggestions about opposition of anti-Semitism is right from the gutter. So too any attack on Colvin.
CHUCKMAN'S WORDS ON WORDPRESS: COMMENTS FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS 
