Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Apparently their eyes don’t work too, because they didn’t see the RCMP raid Conservative Party Headquarters either.

Cadscam hit a snag Friday after the RCMP said that they couldn’t consider audio evidence of Harper admitting to a bribery plan, in criminal charges. Good thing the Internet provides the recording for anyone to listen to. It’s a crime to offer financial considerations to an MP in return for their vote. Good thing that the Criminal Code of Canada is still available on the Internet as well. Resourceful Canadians can put two and two together and get the right answer, even if the RCMP can’t take down a criminal with audio evidence.

The zombies have started to think they’ve won, and are crawling over Jeff’s comments thread. Harper hasn’t won, even though he’s done better than Nixon so far, at avoiding consequences of a damning audio tape.

The Wheels really fell off for the Conservative Party of Canada on the weekend. It’s their own doing to. Journalists don’t make things like this up (they aren’t writing for Air Farce after all):

“Instead [the Conservatives] scurried for a nearby exit and beat a hasty retreat down the fire stairs.”

I was listening to Monty Python Sunday evening, and I think they would have had a hard time coming up with the kind of humour in that public/media relations fiasco. Why not also garnish their heads, and jump into crocodile mouths while they’re busy being eaten alive?

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This will be the talk of the town for a while yet, unless something even worse happens (and it’s possible there will be fines or arrests over the election scandal, if not Cadscam).

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Driving back from Winnipeg, the roads were terrible coming into Regina. Freezing rain coated the highway, and windshield, making visibility and traction things of the past. It was perfect all the way to the border though.

I found this pretty surprising. Americans applying for Canadian tax money to make TV or films are not subject to the Minister’s censor hammer (should Bill C-10 pass). It makes me wonder if it was sloppiness, or something sinister. Given the actions of the Conservatives, it really could be either, but my bet is on sinister.

I guess the Globe is covering the protest because if CTV can’t stop this, then they’ll be out money while their American competitors can pick up the slack on our dime. Our culture and heritage sure is safe in Conservative hands.

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If at first you don’t distract — stall, stall, stall.

Stephen Harper - Getting Things Done for Canadians, very, very, slowly, when the politics suit him. Especially interesting in that article is that the Cadman bribery scandal investigation is being held up by a Conservative Chair.

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Hat tip to Cathie

My friend 1337 Hax0r is considering putting $1000 at stake, if the Liberal Party of Canada brings down the Conservative government in less than one month from the ‘wager’. What more can a blogger do at this point? The Cadman bribery scandal continues to go unpunished, and we’re left with a government content to let Canadians languish (or die) in foreign jails, and claim $1200 of taxable income is enough to cure child poverty.

If Canadians don’t start caring a lot more about having a good government, we’re in for a lot worse. History has shown that to be the obvious outcome of an apathetic and unempowered people. And I can’t think of better adjectives to describe the Liberals right now than apathetic, and unempowered.

I’m glad he’s doing it, and that I caught his blog post, because I was planning on doing the same thing.

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ADDITION: And on the topic of elections, Chris is going to face off with Rae on March 17th, and needs your vote if you’re in that part of Toronto. Rae needs more votes like Saskatchewan needs more snow.

I’m choosing to blame the Liberal Party of Canada for the lack of legal action taken against the members of the Conservative Party accused (with taped evidence) of attempting to bribe the (now late) MP Chuck Cadman. There’s a simple psychological theory that explains mob behaviour in humans, and it’s called the Bystander Effect. It is most often blamed on cases where a human needs help desperately, but because a group of people are ignoring the distress, an individual feels no need to assist.

The Liberals online are brainwashed, perhaps into thinking there is no emergency? The Prime Minister Harper is caught on tape admitting party officials are discussing “financial considerations” with an MP not of their party. It’s an obvious case where the law was broken, but we don’t hear anything about an investigation?! The leaders of the Liberal party are waffling as to the seriousness of bribery in Canadian law.

This is not a time for posturing in Question Period, or plotting election ads which will be moot if the PM is on trial for bribery. This is a time for the people of Canada responsible for investigating crime in the upper levels of government, to step up their work and send Cadscam to court! Right now, democracy’s guardians are asleep at the wheel, and they aren’t waking up because too many people are desensitized to the seriousness of corruption in government.

Comments inserted inside the Liberal email:

The Cadman Affair

Dear Liberal Friend,

Over the last week we have witnessed Canadians’ already fragile trust in the Harper Government dissolve as allegations of the Conservatives’ 2005 attempt to acquire the vote of former MP Chuck Cadman come to light.

If anything, the Conservatives’ knee-jerk reaction has been consistent over the years: when in trouble, intimidate, bristle and threaten litigation.

If the allegations prove correct, this attempted transaction is an affront to the democratic process and possibly a contravention of the law.

What the heck does that mean? If the “allegations prove correct” it’s not “possibly a contravention of the law”. It IS a bribe and HAS to be an affront to the democratic process of the country, if a criminal investigation leads to a conviction in the affair also known as Cadscam.

We Liberals will keep asking for the truth on the Chuck Cadman affair, both inside and outside of the House of Commons.

If your last paragraph is any indication, those questions aren’t nearly tough enough.

Stephen Harper has acknowledged that it is his voice caught on tape admitting there were discussions regarding “financial considerations” between Conservative party officials and Mr. Cadman. Now, Mr. Harper must explain – without any of the ambiguity we have witnessed all week — what the nature of those discussions was.

We need your help to keep the Conservatives’ feet to the fire on this disturbing issue. Canadians deserve the truth, and with your financial support, Liberals like Stéphane Dion, Michael Ignatieff, Ken Dryden, Marlene Jennings and Ralph Goodale will get to the bottom of this.

No way. Did the Liberal President just ask people to pay the party if we want them to continue to get to the bottom of this? What happens if we don’t pay up? Will they stop asking questions in the House? Maybe they’ll avoid more votes? It sounds like they are asking for bribes to do their job! Asking questions in and out of the House of Commons is FREE.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

The Honourable Marie-P. (Charette) Poulin, Senator
President

PS. Visit www.liberal.ca to learn more about the facts concerning this very important issue.

Any why isn’t there an RCMP investigation into Cadscam yet? Did I miss the announcement of one starting? There’s an audio tape confirming the Prime Minister knew that party officials were offering Cadman replacements for “financial considerations”. That’s a BRIBE. You can’t offer a Member of Parliament financial incentives for their vote, it’s against the law. I’m completely ashamed of our country that we can let an entire week go by without formally investigating alleged criminal activity from the most powerful Canadian, caught on tape.

Maybe the new Liberal forum needs to be plagued with people asking the Liberals why they felt a donation request was a good idea in an email talking about politicians using bribery. They are turning a career ending move by Harper, into an “ethics probe”. As if Canadians could give a fig about the ethical status of politicians, it’s rarely been a reason to vote them out before. The Conservatives preach all about criminals serving the time if someone does the crime; Live by the sword, die by it!

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UPDATE: The cries for political blood are growing all over the web.

The Liberals online are brainwashed perhaps?

Or else he’ll Lose It.

- Actual Conservative ad

It, of course, is the Chuck Cadman bribery attempt scandal. If you can’t take down your political opponent when they’ve been caught being aware of an official party attempt to bribe an independent MP into voting a certain way in Parliament, you simply can’t. It’s now, or never. And if it turns into never, heaven help us.

Cadscam is that kind of scandal that destroys the remaining faith people might hold in their government. For any Conservative to claim they can offer “clean” leadership now, is not only laughable, it’s deeply offensive. They’d have to figure you’re an idiot to honestly expect you to buy that load of hogwash.

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UPDATE: Cadman’s widow backs Harper’s only plausible defense (considering the audio tape evidence), and that is that he didn’t know that bribery was on the table for convincing Cadman to vote with the Conservatives. Harper goes after the Liberals in court.