Travers Makes Himself Useful

In the OLO War Room, columnist James Travers must have seemed an inspired choice. He can turn a purple phrase with the best of them. He stands foursquare against troops, widows, and orphans. He's for plummies, toffs, and pointyheads. He's short on guts and glory, long on assay. He has an ego as big as the Ritz, and fragile as a Gruyère Soufflé. To receive a document drop on a Matter of National Importance would be sweet validation, which most likely happened under Liberal governments.

So the Ignatieff Liberals—someone in the OLO—got the brilliant idea of having Travers write about a trove of Richard Colvin’s long-sought emails from Kandahar, the same documents three esteemed generals had justlaid wayside with their testimony.

This is a standard bit of hardball damage control. Refute damning facts, testimony, and documents to anyone who might review them with credibility, pass them instead to a compliant journalist—a “high-value third-party,” in PR lingo—who can be counted on to convey their content with opposition-friendly gloss.

Travers did not disappoint. His piece in Saturday’s Star is replete with snide references to the Pm and three generals, who did not spend more than enough time outside the wire for his liking to be able to state the facts. Apparently volunteering to step into the shoes of the highest ranking military personnel ever to be on the front lines in Afghanistan isn’t sufficient for our Liberal leaning scribe.

James Travers Writes His Most Idiotic Column Ever!!!

With Liberals trailing by 10 points in the polls, the Toronto Star and James Travers are having trouble discerning reality from partisan politics. Travers latest editorial can be summed up in one word. PATHETIC. Check out this beauty of a piece:

" It's been a long march into twilight. A country that gave the world Lester Pearson's peacekeeping and Brian Mulroney's stand against apartheid is now struggling with Stephen Harper's apparent blindness to compelling evidence of Afghanistan prisoner abuse.

For all its sound and fury, the counter-attack that politicians, bureaucrats and generals mounted this week was morally weak and legally flimsy. In struggling to sway public opinion, finely parsed denials skidded around the looming conclusion that Canada transferred prisoners into probable torture after being warned by the pre-eminent and most credible victims-of-violence organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross."

Did Travers just infer the testimony of three highly honored and respected generals was flimsy and weak? Wonder how those three esteemed gentleman feel about Travers slight on their reputation. Travers bigger problem is that on the same day he writes this tripe the Globe and Mail runs an editorial on the same subject by Christie Blatchford. It's also worth pointing out that the Globe and Mail was quite critical of the government after Colvine's testimony.

But what sets Blatchfords editorial apart from Travers is that hers is actually based on fact. Take for example Travers reference to the Red Cross, and what the actual facts of Colvine's emails were:

" It seems to have been Mr. Colvin's visit to the provincial prison in Kandahar city on May 16, 2006, that first triggered his concern. But that inspection and an earlier one upon which he relied, made in December of 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross, were, in the Afghan context, practically sunny about their findings."

Blatchford goes on to list more facts, all of which are damaging to Travers attempt at smearing the PM. Perhaps Travers should do some research rather than taking notes from the OLO, or whatever it is he supposedly does to glean information for his column. Blatchford actually references testimony from Hillier, which I would suggest to Travers is neither morally weak nor legally flimsy:

"From the start, Canadian soldiers were using gunshot residue tests (this was mentioned by the former chief of defence staff Rick Hillier in his testimony to the committee this week, but the significance of the remark went unnoticed) to sift the wheat from the chaff.

They detained only those who tested positive for GSR (meaning they had recently either fired a weapon or been right beside someone who had), were found with guns or bomb-making parts or near IED strikes or were otherwise highly suspicious, such as well-dressed men carrying large amounts of Pakistani cash.

Mr. Colvin's claim that innocent farmers were being cruelly dispatched to torture suggests he paid scarce attention to the “Taliban by night” phenomenon, whereby the man who farms by day becomes, under cover of darkness, a low-level fighter in the insurgency. Whether he acts out of need or is coerced into fighting with the Taliban, once he begins shooting or planting bombs, for the soldier, he is the enemy."

It's called journalistic integrity Mr. Travers, something you yourself seem to be morally weak on.

Torture For Dollar$: Donolo Me$$e$ Up

With Liberals feeling a little more optimistic what with those in Iffy's office joining the unemployment line and the hiring of supposed savior strategist Peter Donolo, it appears that optimism might be short lived:

"Liberals Link Fundraising to Torture Allegations
Daniel Proussalidis
Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The federal Liberal Party is using the Afghan torture allegations as a fundraising tool.

CFRA News is in possession of an e-mail from the party's national director calling for donations to the party to stop the Conservatives from making Canada a place the Grits "can no longer recognize."

The e-mail also accuses the Conservatives of engaging in "Republican-style attack politics" that undermine Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

The message from Rocco Rossi contends donations to the Liberals will help the party "find the truth" about the federal government’s awareness of allegations that Taliban prisoners had been tortured by Afghan authorities."

Liberals were already suffering from lack of credibility with the detainee issue from the outset, no transfer agreement until the dying days of Martin's debacle of a government. Combine that with the testimony from three former generals contradicting Colvine's testimony, with Hillier noting Colvine was only outside the compound once during his entire time in Afghanistan, and it looks like the Liberals were fishing for another faux-scandal.

Any progress the Liberals might have made on the issue was quickly erased with the decision to boost fundraising with torture as the theme.

Keep at er' Peter, because if this is part of the strategy of the new Liberal braintrust, those polling numbers should stay in very Dionesque numbers.

Hey, What Ever Happened To H1N1?

Just a few short days ago, we had the likes of Liberal Bob Rae stating Canadians had died as a result of the Conservative governments handling of H1N1. Some Liberal MP's, notably Hedy Fry demanded to be shown to the front of the vaccination line, you know, all that hand shaking. Liberal MP Martha Hall Findley was on the airwaves daily calling this the worst pandemic in decades, and admonishing the government for improper planning.

And we had Liberal strategist (sarcasm on) Tom Clark, host of Power Play, telling us daily that the government was incompetent in it's handling of the pandemic.

But much like wafergate, the worst recession since the 30's, stimulus deficit, piano playing, it fell on deaf ears for the voters of Canada. Heck, it even turns out many regions are now weeks ahead in their vaccination dispensing.

So now the Iffy Liberals, led by Donolo, are smelling fresh blood on the Afghan detainee issue. Sorry Peter, it's old news. Those allegations came out in 2007. Covine is just repeating his unproven allegations before committee. And the Liberals will fail to realize any gain from this latest faux scandal. It seems the Liberals never saw fit to get a prisoner transfer agreement until the party was on it's political deathbed under Paul Martin. It was the current government who succeeded in having rights to check on prisoners and their health after transfer. Then there is also the issue of Iffy's writings on torture, which I'm sure you hope you can hide under the rug.

So huff and puff all you want, as the Big Bad Wolf strategy you appear to insist on keeping with will only see more failure in your polling numbers. At the end of the day Ignatieff will prove to be strike three in leader choice for your party.

Donolo Liberals Same As Davey Liberals...

The PM leaves the country on government business and like clockwork, the Liberals quickly assume faux scandal #17,865.

"OTTAWA – Angry Liberals accused the Conservative government of reaching a new political low by circulating flyers accusing the Grits of being ant-Semitic.

The "scandalous" flyers, endorsed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and which target ridings with large Jewish communities, accuse the Liberals of participating in an anti-Semitic conference in Durban, supporting terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah and specifically go after Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff for accusing Israel of committing war crimes".

Sorry guys, but:
#1 Liberals did attend a conference in Durban which few would argue was not anti-Semitic.

2. Liberals refused to have Hezbollah labelled as a terrorist group. And if I remember right there were some opposition MP's at rallies in Quebec for said groups.

3. You guys do realize Ignatieff did in fact state Israel may be reponsible for war crimes, no? Of course, that was one of Iffy's quicker flip-flops, right up there with asbestos, HST, etc., so maybe you missed the quick change in position.

And hey, whatever happened to Iffy. Since his rapid decension in the polls he appears to have adopted the WK bubble boy strategy, that being out of sight, out of mind to mitigate any further damage.

Peter Mansbridge Tells An Outright Lie!!!

I'm watching Dragon's Den, which I think is a great show, and during a commercial break, Mansbridge comes on announcing the headlines for the upcoming news show. He states shocking new testimony shows ALL Afghan detainees were likely tortured. Now at first I'm thinking I must have misheard, and through the wonders of PVR's, I rewind and yep. he said all Afghan detainees were most likely tortured. The allegation is that all of the prisoners Canada handed over to Afghanistan's notorious intelligence service in 2006-07 were tortured. That is quite different than all Afghans turned over by our forces were tortured. And I have a rather obvious question for anyone to answer. Are we to believe that prisoners only allegedly began being tortured once the Conservatives won the 2006 election?

Uh Peter, that was and is a blatant lie. Perhaps you or the higher ups at CBC might want to correct the record. From what I heard, that sounded more like a Liberal Party press release from a worn-out strategist.

p.s. It's also rather ironic that when you guys run around with cap in hand demanding money for local television you provide another blatant example of why most Canadian's disagree with you.

Michael Ignatieff's Office Fuels Unemployment Rate

Another day, two more "resignations" in the OLO.

"Two senior Ignatieff aides are leaving their positions in the Opposition Leader's Office to return to Toronto.

Mark Sakamoto and Alexis Levine, both lawyers who have been part of Michael Ignatieff's inner circle since his 2006 leadership bid, confirmed their decisions in separate e-mails to The Globe and Mail tonight. They were part of the "Toronto gang" around Mr. Ignatieff".

To put things in proper perspective, Iffy has the Liberals polling at the same numbers Dion scored in the 2008 election. Despite a recession Liberals decry as the worst since the 30's. Despite Boob Rae screaming Canadians are dying from an as yet fictionary Conservative H1N1 pandemic.

Wafergate, Chequegate, blue sweaters, Beatle tunes, and a worn-out strategist fella, and still Iffy and the Rosedale gang can't put a dent in the PM's armor. Methinks it's quite obvious the fault lays at the feet of numero uno, the anointed one. But don't believe me guys. Just keep eating your own.