Steve and Sandra

So long to the Way of the Metal Fist

2008-06-26T22:52:00.003-07:00

Sandra Buckler resigns.

Buckler : (French bouclier 'shield', from old French bocle, boucle 'boss') is a small shield gripped in the fist -- it was generally used as a companion weapon in hand-to-hand combat, useful in deflecting the blow of an opponent's sword or mace.
The primary use of the buckler is to protect the sword hand. The buckler's lightness and curved center made it excellent for deflecting attacking blades. Such a deflection would leave the attacker open for a rapid counter-attack.
"Metal fist": A buckler can be used to directly attack an opponent by punching with either its flat face or its rim.

Way of the Metal Fist

Steve and Sandra and Grover and Tom

2008-05-09T23:38:00.001-07:00

And here's the article : Harper's 'nation of shopping centres'
"Tom Flanagan, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's longtime confidant and former chief of staff, is delighted at the Conservatives' success in "tightening the screws on the federal government" to dramatically reduce its significance in the daily lives of Canadians.

The Conservatives' three budgets have left Ottawa financially incapable of offering any new national social program like affordable housing, higher education or day care. Although overall spending went up, mostly on the military, measures were taken to deplete revenues to the point future governments' hands will be tied unless they raise taxes or run deficits, both prescriptions for political suicide."

Steve and Sandra send in the drones

2008-03-27T00:41:00.002-07:00

Dear Con aficionados of talk radio and Steno mini-Steves:
It's bad enough that the Cons think you are too stupid to articulate in your own words why you are a Con; it's rather worse that you apparently go along with this assessment.

Callers to radio phone-in shows scripted by Conservative headquarters
as well as dittohead letters to the editor.

Steve and Sandra and the $1M question

2008-03-08T04:23:00.000-08:00

Almost a third of Canadians think Harper is lying over Cadman affair : Poll
"Almost one-third of respondents said they favoured a public investigation led by a third party, such as the Commons Speaker or ethics commissioner, while 31 per cent said an investigation by the RCMP would be the most appropriate course of action."

H/t Dana at TGB

Steve and Sandra's political football

2008-02-18T11:13:00.002-08:00

What's with all this "war is above political football" crap?

Thomas Walkom : Why shouldn't voters discuss war?

"Those who praise the Liberals for supporting the Conservative government on Afghanistan argue that it is crucial to avoid politicizing the war, lest it become an election issue. The argument here is that the war is too important to be left to the voters......When else are we supposed to get a crack at it?"

Answer : Apparently when it's safe enough even for Liberals

Steve and Sandra's new two-tier torture awareness program

2008-01-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

Oooops - NYTimes says it is, Steve. And then Max forgot to give Afghanistan special torture dispensation in his presser yesterday :

Ottawa Citizen : "Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier yesterday disavowed the inclusion of Israel and the United States on an official list of countries where prisoners can be tortured, and said the document would be revised.

"I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the department's torture awareness training," Mr. Bernier said in a statement.

"It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten."

Silly civil servants. Why can't they keep up with who our allies are?

Luckily, Max is gonna fix it with his new two-tier torture awareness program.

Steve and Sandra talk tasers

2007-11-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

CTV : "RCMP Cpl. Gregg Gillis is the force's expert on Taser training and excited delirium -- the mysterious condition of heart-pounding agitation used as a kind of catch-all label by those who can't otherwise explain why a growing number of people have died soon after being zapped."

Heh.

Steve and Sandra throw Brian under a bus

2007-11-19T06:56:00.000-08:00

To : The Ministers of Whatever and your various meaningless minions

From : The PMO

"Effective immediately and until further notice, none of you are to utter the name Brian for any reason whatsoever. Needless to say, talking to anyone named Brian is also strictly forbidden.

Some of you nobodies have displayed the unfortunate lack of foresight to name your firstborn Brian. Too bad, no exceptions.

Signed,

Sandra Buckler

PSA : Steve Won't Teabag Brian No More

TGB : Trouble in the Conservative Sandbox

Steve and Sandra have a cold one

2007-11-05T20:02:00.000-08:00

New set of Tory attack ads

Poilievre provided the "normal....having a cold one" quote.
Dickhead.
As Dave says : "Welcome to the Reform agenda. It hasn't changed save for the political party name under which it exists."

Steve and Sandra - I am so the boss of you

2007-10-27T02:31:00.000-07:00

Steve says 2011
Hillier says :"Afghanistan's army could need 10 years before it's in a position to fend for itself."
Dave says : "If anyone knows what it takes to train an army, it's Sandra Buckler."

In his non-retraction retraction, Hillier says : "I'm very clear on where the direction comes from. … We're on exactly the same page and I believe actually we see things exactly the same way."
He doesn't scale back to 2011; instead he implies that Harper also knows it will take another decade.
So either the war on Afghanistan is a bad idea and the sooner we get out the better, or the reconstruction is a good idea and we should stay till it's done.

Picking the date 2011 merely fulfills our duty to NATO and has fuck all to do with what's good for Afghanistan.

Steve and Sandra and the Throne Speech

2007-10-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

G&M : Liberals may let Throne Speech pass, Dion says

"The trigger for a fall election will not be pulled this week, provided Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Throne Speech is not outrageous, radical and very right-wing," said Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion yesterday.

CP : "The Harper government believes the Liberals are so desperate to avoid an election that they'll accept a speech describing Kyoto climate-change targets as unattainable."

H/T : Accidental Deliberations

Steve and Sandra : Get It Right, Alberta!

2007-10-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

Reuters : "International oil producers will flee Alberta if the Western Canadian province's government implements a proposed hike to oil and natural gas royalties and taxes, according to Tristone Capital Inc, an investment bank that serves the oil and gas industry."

HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA

Steve and Sandra Get Things Undone

2007-09-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

All this, and they were only elected with 36% of the popular vote

Steve and Sandra - A Secure and Prosperous Partnership

2007-08-21T01:32:00.000-07:00

"Only 'virtual protests' allowed at North American summit

H/T Dawg's Blawg and Accidental Deliberations

Steve and Sandra - Spinning the war

2007-07-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

Steve and Sandra Go to the G8 : Something or other about 2050

2007-06-08T05:37:00.000-07:00

Some previous G8 something or others :

At the G8 Gleneagles Summit in 2005, world leaders promised Africa debt relief, drugs for AIDS and double the annual aid within five years.

Just one year later, total aid from G8 countries actually dropped. Canada's aid fell by 9%; the US by 20%.

Another previous G8 promise : to write off the debts of the 18 poorest African countries.This year's debt in interest alone? A billion and half dollars. Or, more than those countries saved from the debt relief they got in the first place.

If you don't count Bush's nostalgia for the good old days of the arms race in Europe, you can at least say that this year the G8's aren't making any promises they can't keep.

On The Map with Avi Lewis

Steve and Sandra - Dressed to Kill

2007-06-02T17:59:00.000-07:00

Just so we're clear here : Steve, who didn't serve in the military, went off on Dion for not serving in the military and Ignatieff for spending time in academia outside the country, because Dion called for the resignation of an incompetent Con cabinet minister who used to serve in the military.

When called on it, Steve said :
"It's true I've never served in the armed forces," the PM admitted. "I consider that an experience in my life that I've missed. But I can say, Mr. Speaker, that I've always worked and lived and paid my taxes in my country."

As Tim put it in The Canadian President : It's really a right wing twofer for Harper. He gets to criticize people who have not served in the military (hypocritical prick that he is) and he gets to sneer at an academic. It's all good!
Got it? No? Just think of it as a more childish variation on "I know you are but what am I?"
The Galloping Beaver : Harper the warrior king, channeling Dick Cheney
Canadian Cynic : Too stupid to know they've been towel-snapped

Steve and Sandra motivate their troops

2007-05-20T03:39:00.000-07:00

What? You never wondered what might be playing on some of those little earpieces everyone wears in Question Period ?

Steve and Sandra - In the Year 2025

2007-05-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Relentlessly Progressive Economics :

"The Harper plan is for a 20% reduction by 2020, and will be 13 years late in meeting the Kyoto targets (6% below 1990 levels by 2025). The 18% number is an intensity-based reduction – that is, per unit of output – not a total decrease.

For what it is worth, the intensity of Canada’s CO2 emissions fell by 13% between 1990 and 2005, according to Environment Canada. This was a time when our actual emissions went up by 24%."

Steve and Sandra's blackouts

2007-04-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

Link : What Ottawa doesn't want you to know

Steve and Sandra sponsor a scandal

2007-04-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hands up anyone who gives a rat's ass about AdScam.
In this Allen Gregg piece we get some perspective :
"Being discussed concerned commissions paid to advertising agencies in relation to the Federal Government’s (since abandoned) sponsorship program.

The amount in question was $100 million over a four year period or approximately $25 million per year. Based on an annual operating budget of $180 billion, the amount for which “little or no value” could be found represented .015% of the tax dollar entrusted to government for that year.

Steve and Sandra - Voila notre $233 billion!

2007-03-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

Flaherty's budget speech - Voila le trick ou treat.

Steve and Sandra's Gnu Accountability

2007-03-09T21:27:00.000-08:00

The GnuGovs want to know if Canadians are cool with there being no accountability in their GnuGov Accountability Act. Because as we all remember from their campaign in the last election, nothing, repeat nothing, is more important to Canadians than cleaning up government by making lobbyists and their government contacts accountable.

Gnashing of teeth continues at Creekside

Steve and Sandra's State Craft

2007-02-17T09:13:00.000-08:00

Reuters :
"Canadian police concluded a probe into a 2005 income trust scandal on Thursday without charging any Liberal politicians even though the scandal contributed to that party's electoral defeat last year.The RCMP said it is charging only one person -- a senior civil servant in the Finance Department -- as a result of its investigation.The governing Conservative Party, while in opposition, had accused the then Liberal finance minister, Ralph Goodale, and his office of directly leaking information to investors of an imminent tax policy announcement regarding income trusts, allowing the investors to make tidy profits.
"If Mr. Goodale wants an apology, he should go to the RCMP and ask them whether they're still investigating him and ask if this is a conclusion," said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty."

Good idea, Jim.
Because if, in his capacity as general director of analysis at the tax policy branch of the Department of Finance up until Wednesday, Serge Nadeau made a single illicit dime on the Cons watch in the last year, well then I guess it's only fair if we paint the entire Con party as corrupt, right?

Steve and Sandra go green!

2007-01-20T01:39:00.000-08:00

CBC : U.S. urges "fivefold expansion" in Alberta oilsands production
CanWest : Ottawa hails nuclear energy for oilsands
Creekside : Subsequent hand-wringing by me

Steve and Sandra and the Clean Baird Act

2007-01-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

All Baird quotes courtesy of today's CBC Almanac.
Trouble with Rona was - she didn't talk loudly and just didn't use her boots enough.

Steve and Sandra and Canada's New Accountability

2006-12-31T04:27:00.000-08:00

Link

Steve and Sandra and MiniTrue

2006-11-18T06:23:00.000-08:00

Globe&Mail :
"Sandra Buckler, the communications director for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has asked that staff working for Conservative cabinet ministers secretly provide her with assessments of their bosses' communications skills."

Steve and Sandra get things done

2006-11-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

The ubiquitous slogan : "Getting things done for all of us"
Shorter : "Getting things for us" and "Things done for U.S."

Steve's communications director Sandra Buckler fired off several rounds of bucklershot yesterday not explaining why London North Centre Con candidate Dianne Haskett is not permitted to speak to the media [Ed. note - Gays! Guns! GOP! God!] as part of her campaign.

Sandra finished with a new variation on the theme :
"Vote for a candidate that will be a part of a government that gets things done for families and taxpayers."

Whoa, Sandra. Waaay too friggin long, girl.
Try these instead : "Vote for Families" and "Things for Taxpayers".

Steve and Sandra and Same Sex Religion

2006-11-10T16:45:00.000-08:00

The always wonderful Chris Hedges : Letter From Canada

Steve and Sandra send regrets

2006-11-04T18:32:00.000-08:00

Globe&Mail : "Stephen Harper has surprised and annoyed European Union leaders by cancelling a planned Canada-EU summit, where he was going to be criticized for abandoning this country's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming."

Steve and Sandra and Acts of Spam

2006-10-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

Steve and Sandra and not Garth

2006-10-20T04:23:00.000-07:00

A little recent history and a nudge from Canadian Cynic.

Steve and Sandra and the faith-based thing

2006-10-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

Amid stories of the no longer secret Republican Party derision of the fundies down south, comes this quote from Harper in his Reform days, as reprinted in The Star:

"In the United States, this (social conservative) element of the electorate has been critical in the development of the Republican coalition. It provides workers and funds disproportionate to its size as a voting bloc."

Steve and Sandra - NAU you see it...NAU you don't

2006-10-08T04:13:00.000-07:00

NDP Trade Critic Peter Julian has raised the question of the secret conference at the Banff Springs Hotel organized by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. He will be making access to information requests.
Good for him, but he will be up against these guys.

Steve and Sandra and the lighter side of torture

2006-10-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

US Congress, with the help of 12 Democrats, has suspended the right of habeas corpus. Bush is now officially in the business of disappearing people without trial, and authorizing interrogation methods the UN considers illegal. In addition, immunity from prosecution is now retroactively granted to the perpetrators of all previous abuses.

In a story in the Toronto Star regarding Canada's ongoing complicity in the Arar case, there is this tragic little sidebar, with a quote from a State Department official regarding their decision to send Arar to Syria.
It reads in part :
"there were assurances that [Arar's] treatment would meet the standards of the Geneva Conventions," he told a briefing. "We had to have a reasonable expectation that he was not going to be tortured or maltreated. We were able to assure ourselves of that."
Not any more.

Steve and Sandra play their base

2006-09-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Steve : Whoa! What, no cartoon this time? Where's the frames?
Sandra : We seem to be the victims of some kind of funding cut, sir.

Steve : Hey, how are our own funding cuts playing to the base?
Sandra : Excellent, sir. They clearly demonstrate we don't like research or drugs or uppity women or gays or aboriginals. But that isn't even the best part....

Sandra : No, the best part is how they're reacting to the big cheque moment. They think you invented it, sir. Many of them don't realize that the $13 billion surplus was accrued under the Libs or that it must be applied to the debt every year by law or that the Libs paid down $82 billion in the last decade alone.

Steve : Yeah, well, it's all about optics. Speaking of which...Sandra, what are you wearing?
Sandra : Why, sir....this is rather unexpected...my red power jacket. Why?

Steve : Because it's Wednesday, Sandra. Wearing red on Wednesdays is not supporting the troops.
Sandra : Sorry, sir. I was just wearing red in my spare time. Won't happen again, sir.

Steve and Sandra's "Two Bit Plan"TM

2006-09-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Cerberus notes that Steve's "The Five Priorities"TM have suddenly morphed into "The Four Pillars"TM

Steve and Sandra and shell and pea

2006-09-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

From the Globe&Mail :
"It's expected to take many months for U.S. Customs to return lumber duties to eligible companies and Ottawa will advance the refunds through the Export Development Corp."

From the EDC :"Canada Account transactions are negotiated, executed and administered by EDC—but the risks under the Canada Account are assumed by the Government of Canada."

Steve and Sandra and Canada's New Governments

2006-09-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

From a link at My Blahg.
The Gazetteer has a couple of ideas about it.

Steve and Sandra and "Operation Enduring Heroin"

2006-09-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Dave at The Galloping Beaver covers Operation Wash Rinse Repeat
Update : "Afghanistan's world-leading opium cultivation rose a "staggering" 59 percent this year, the U.N. anti-drugs chief announced Saturday in urging the government to crack down on big traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police."

Steve and Sandra do the laundry

2006-08-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

CathiefromCanada has the links. Some more thoughts from POGGE.
Accidental Deliberations has been on this from the beginning.

Meanwhile here's David Emerson, pretending to miss the point entirely :
"International Trade Minister David Emerson said Thursday that threats to vote against softwood lumber legislation show the Opposition parties are anti-American.
"I know that both the NDP and the Liberals are staunchly anti-American in their inner core," Emerson told The Canadian Press in an interview Thursday."

What a dick.

Steve and Sandra and the Five Noble Truths

2006-08-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Steve and Sandra - Defending the Arctic

2006-08-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Link

Steve and Sandra

2006-08-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Link