Tim Pawlenty 2007: Listen to Visionaries like Jimmy Carter, ignore Global Warming Skeptics

I started this blog in February 2007, and many of my initial posts centered around the mountains of evidence emerging that the whole Global Warming/Climate Change movement was a complete fraud. In fact, the talk of March 2007 around the ‘net was UK Channel 4’s “The Great Global Warming Swindle” documentary, which exposed the faulty science behind the political watermelon movement. There was an attempt in 2006 to start a “Crunchy Con” movement, but that was a non-starter that fooled no one.

Fast-forward to May 2011, and we have a character named Tim Pawlenty, pretending to be the small-c conservative standard bearer for the Republicans in the 2012 Presidential Election campaign. Yet where was he in April 2007, when we already knew that the Global Warming emperor had no clothes? He was addressing the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group (MCCAG) in Minneapolis, with this brief speech. Here is the full text of his remarks to the organization, found also in the .pdf minutes of the MCCAG found here.

Thank you everyone. You’re all busy and you’ve taken time to help us form a better environmental program for the state.

As Peter Drucker taught us, “The practices that got us here, won’t get us to the future. The best way to think about future is to go out and invent it.”

It looks like we should have listened to President Carter. He called us to action, and we should have listened. So we now have ourselves in a bit of a pickle. As is often the case, the people are way ahead of the politicians. We’re benefiting from their tailwind.

Other visionaries deserve credit too, many who may have been dismissed as goofy. They were right, not goofy. Energy and climate issues are intertwined. Climate change is real. Human behavior is partly and may be a lot responsible. Those who don’t think so are simply not right. We should not spend time on voices that say it’s not real. Please don’t let these voices discourage or distract you from your mission.

Our hope is at the end of your deliberations, you will have given us a plan for action. I’m proud of Minnesota’s longstanding attention to environmental issues, but here we need to raise the bar as others catch up. We want to be bold, dynamic. But we have to fashion steps. Our actions on climate can’t unravel the political consensus or the Minnesota economy. It must be done in a rational way.

Sometimes success has led to complacency. Sadly we have been complacent in thinking about energy and environment. But we’re reaching a tipping point, and we have to deal with it now. I’ll do my best to lead and advocate for your recommendations.

In summary: ‘Jimmy Carter’s malaise speech was right-on. Listen to the visionaries like him and Al Gore, and ignore those deniers who stand in the way of  big-government solutions to climate change. I believe the climate is at a tipping-point, and I’ll act as governor to do whatever you zealots recommend.’

T-Paw has tried to distance himself from enviro-pimping ways of the past. But his “mistake” wasn’t in, say, 1997, when he could have claimed to not have known any better. This was 2007, when the debunking was publicly available, and the red agenda of the green movement was well known. He was already Governor of a state, and was actively encouraging the greens to provide him a plan to implement! Later in 2007, he actually signed a state bill requiring a Minnesota task force to come up with recommendations on how to implement a cap-and-trade system. There’s no way to write this one off as a youthful indiscretion.

So the question is: Is Tim Pawlenty a naive fool, or another two-faced RINO? Either way: I cannot take his candidacy seriously. If you were pushing that stuff just four years ago, you have no business pretending to be a conservative.

Toronto City Councillor Paula Fletcher Shows Off Ugly Face of the Left

A taxpayer listens to John Tory’s drive-time radio show on 1010am, and is encouraged to attend a public budget consultation meeting at Toronto City Hall. After asking a question about rising property tax rates, Toronto Ward 30 City Councillor Paula Fletcher does us all a great favour, and shows us off the true face of the leftist crew that currently runs Toronto council: utter contempt, absolute condescension, and pure venomous hatred for the middle class. Her public denunciation of the taxpayer is indistinguishable from the tactics used in Maoist and Stalinist purges. Listen and be amazed at the treatment afforded to a man who, like us all, pays her salary!

Toronto City Councillor Paula Fletcher Freaks Out on Constituent, Radio Host, Political Enemies.

UPDATE: Did I say “Marxist Hatred”? I didn’t even know how right I was! For, alas, this is the same Paula Fletcher that led the Communist Party of Canada – Manitoba from 1981-86, standing as a candidate for the legislature under that party’s banner twice.

Share your Prorogue Horror Stories Here!

As the great Prorogue disaster of 2010 winds down, I’d like to ask you, my dear readers, to submit your best Prorogue horror stories of this lamentable gap in Canadian Parliamentary life.

For me, it had to be that night when I woke up at 3:30 am in a cold sweat and foaming at the mouth from a nightmare: I was being chased through the center block in Ottawa by my Liberal MP Ken Dryden (wearing his original 1970 goalie mask) in nothing but my underwear, clutching a proclamation of congratulations for the Boys and Girls Club of Timmins on their successful fundraising bingo for seniors, and not being able to stop and ask Mr. Speaker for the floor, before running straight into Libby Davies.

Or was that reality??? Whoo-ha-ha-ha-ha! In any case, it took me 11 minutes to fall back asleep, and I spent an entire minute the next day tortured by the thought of Libby Davies being in my dreams. Can it get any worse than that?

I know, it’s been hard on everyone. Please, share: how did the prorogue make your life a living hell for the past few weeks? Best story wins a collector’s-edition Patrick Chan Cheerios box. Second place gets an invitation to run through the streets of my neighborhood displaying the hysteria that this period has provoked in us all.

Michael Ignatieff’s Vision of Canada: Dreary, Vacuous Mythology

Thanks to National Newswatch for linking to this unintentionally hysterical end-of-year sympathy-cry for the hapless Leader of the Opposition, Michael Ignatieff, courtesy of the shameless Susan Delacourt of The Toronto Star.

First, the lede:

…doesn’t he just want to give up, go back to his charmed life as an international academic and writer?

“Never,” Ignatieff says. “I’m here. I’m staying. I’m not going anywhere.”

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Iggy in 2009, it’s that his tough talk is a complete sham. Why even pretend you’re an alpha-male, Iggy? Fact is, the only thing in your control is where you live (Toronto or Cambridge). He could be turfed out the back door just like his predecessor, Steffi, as soon as tomorrow for all we know. That much is up to the Liberal power brokers – not Iggy.

Next, Susan on how his ambitious turnaround plans will start:

As soon as the Liberal leader returns from an extended Christmas holiday – destination kept secret – he is headed out on the road, to connect with university students and rooms full of what he calls the “unconverted.”

Everyone can relate to those leaders who, when times get tough, go on extended vacations. And when Liberals need to convert the unconverted, of course they go straight to where a Liberal can hardly be found – the university campus! More on that:

“We’re going to universities. It’s important to preach to the unconverted. Some of what I have to do is rally the base, raise money. But the stuff I enjoy the most is going into rooms that aren’t full of Liberals – university crowds, university students are the future of Canadian politics and we have to get to them.”

A parody writer couldn’t have done a better job inventing the character, “Delusional lefty politician”.

As usual in the mainstream press, the important and valuable insight can be gleaned by reading the story bottom-up. The final paragraph contains Iggy’s depressing vision of Canada. Does he speak of freedom? Opportunity? Prosperity? Northern toughness? Achievement? How about even the basic Liberal boilerplate of Human Rights, Equality and Multiculturalism? Well, high-minded dreamers, here’s Canada in the mind of the man who wants to be your Prime Minister:

“I think it’s a small-l liberal country and I don’t want that to sound arrogant,” Ignatieff says. “I think that the country is small-l liberal in that it believes passionately in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It believes in publicly funded health care. It believes that Canadians should not be abandoned when they lose their jobs, they need help and training. It believes that anybody who has good grades to get through school should get all the education our society can provide. This stuff hasn’t moved very much.”

“It believes passionately in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms” – I don’t think so. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of Canadians could not recite a single line from the charter, and at least 50% wouldn’t even be able to tell you a single concept contained therein. Many Canadians are told that they believe passionately in the Charter; but most have no clue what that even means.

“It believes in publicly funded health care” – that’s number two on our list, how we pay our doctors? Makes us sound like a country of soulless bean-counters, not human beings.

“It believes that Canadians should not be abandoned when they lose their jobs” – amazingly, dear leader can’t even come up with a third point of vision, and reverts instinctively to petty partisanship, as if helping the unemployed is somehow an issue of controversy.

“It believes that anybody who has good grades to get through school should get all the education our society can provide” – he’s a professor, an author, a journalist, and a political leader; and yet, he can’t even compose a coherent sentence on the topic of education as a national value. Cue the parody writer again: Idiotic academic who can’t even master the art of bullshit.

The dreariness of this man! Enjoy that vacation, dear sir. For a non-entity, it can neither hurt nor help.

Michael Ignatieff: Another Disastrous Liberal Mistake

As long as Stephen Harper refuses to expand his PR image beyond “competent” and “safe”, he will fail to attain his much-desired majority government. If he can put forth a coherent, positive, aspirational vision for the country – whether it be with a hard conservative edge or not – he will get it. And now may be his opportunity, as he has once again combined strategic mastery with a bit of luck to buy himself at least another year as Prime Minister in a minority parliament, with an opposition in absolute disarray.

The latest work of strategic mastery? The 2009 budget, presented yesterday, unloved by everyone today. How can a document that has been panned across the ideological spectrum be considered a strategic masterpiece? 1) It pays lip service only to the irresistible force of the Keynesian “stimulus” nonsense fad dominating the world right now, projecting an inflated budget deficit that will never actually take place thanks to a neat poison pill (a provision that releases infrastructure funds only when matched dollar-for-dollar by provinces or municipalities – dollars that simply don’t exist) that will ensure most of the infrastructure billions announced will never be spent. This allowed Harper to gain Liberal support and earn NDP/Bloc wrath – wrath directed mostly at his true rivals, the Liberals, once again fracturing the left into little pieces; and 2) It avoids the “third rail” that conservative politicians must never touch – tax increases – and actually offers, in difficult times, small but tangible tax savings for most.

As for the luck? That happened in December, when the Liberal Party inexplicably decided to cancel its leadership race, and install “The Czar”, Michael Ignatieff, as its instant, permanent replacement for the hapless Stephane Dion. “Hey, he’s brilliant, he’s dashing, he’s worldly, he’s respected – he’s our Obama”, the pinheads in the party must have been saying. But what arrogant Liberals have failed to learn is: a coronation hands its recipient a poisoned chalice. The public at large will always be suspicious of a leader who did not earn his position. Paul Martin, Kim Campbell, and John Turner all learned this in the most humiliating way: each was utterly rejected by voters after being handed the Prime Ministership on a silver platter. I guarantee, the vast majority of non-political-junkie Canadians who watched the news tonight had the same opinion of this performance: who the hell is this guy, and who does he think he is, putting the government on “probation”?:

Iggy is everything the Liberals should have avoided: an arrogant-sounding, elitist, Toronto-centric, prickly, inexperienced, cold, humourless, hard-edged, bitter-looking opportunist, whose every public word makes him sound like an actor pretending to be a politician. While Stephane Dion had even worse flaws, at least he seemed genuine. As I have contended for two years now, there’s only one Liberal leadership candidate who was in the running that the Conservatives were scared of facing off against, and that was the very dangerous, very destructive Bob Rae. Further, there’s only one Liberal who could have peeled away the Conservative base and led them back to government quickly, and that would have been John Manley. But, as luck would have it, the Libs, panicked by their ill-conceived runaway-freight-train coalition experiment and their precarious financial position, took the worst possible choice in the worst possible manner.

Bad choices come with bad costs. Now, we’ll see if Harper can seize the opportunity, and move from being a competent caretaker to an inspirational leader.

Coup Floppers: Prorogued Parliament means Death to Coalition

Parliament now suspended until January 26, with budget presented January 27. Some Liberals are already bailing out of the stinking ship. Some Liberals will be called into Flaherty’s and Harper’s offices for budget consultations, and will slink away from the coalition. Other Liberals will read their e-mail over the holidays, and drop out of the coalition. Iggy will drop his support for the widely rejected coup plot, in his quest to repair his reputation in time for the leadership convention and to separate himself from Bob Rae. The confidence vote will be close. If the government falls on Jan. 27, the Liberals will wear this disaster like a hairnet at a photo op. Conservative majority. Endgame.

And Jack will continue being Jack.

The Libs still don’t get it: Andre Arthur on Quebecers’ hate for Stephane Dion

The Coalition-pushers at the CBC were hoping Quebec Independent MP Andre Arthur – the former talk radio iconoclast from the provincial capital – would help promote the myth that the Separatist-Opportunist-Socialist coalition (as coined by Monte Solberg) will be popular in Quebec (and thus, in the pathetic Europhilic arse-licking world of the urban left, an obviously good thing). Arthur wouldn’t bite at any of Don Newman’s promptings, and instead told him what Quebecers really think of the Coalition’s PM-wannabe, Stephane Dion (hint: they’d rather see him on a shrimp boat in Louisiana). Watch and enjoy!

Did anyone vote for this? Separatist-Opportunist-Socialist Coalition wants to run Canada

Is this a dream, or a nightmare? Just weeks after a Federal Election that returned a strengthened Conservative Minority Parliament to Canada, the three losing parties have joined together in an attempt to govern the country. To cut through the bull, here is what is happening, in a nutshell: the lefties in all three parties, inspired by the Barack and Bailout mania sweeping through the USA, want to join the party here North of the border. When Harper refused to join the Keynsian/New Deal redux to disaster, the socialists freaked.

Now, it’s up to them to convince ordinary Canadians – who, I would guess, are about 75% against this nonsense – that they are a legitimate government. Constitutional, maybe. Legitimate to the voters? Good luck with that one.

More soon.

UPDATE: Are you buying the “economic crisis in Canada” rhetoric of the three pinheads? Buried (purposely) by the media today: Canada’s GDP Rises in Q3. That means: no recession, folks. And, from first-hand experience as the proprietor of a consumer-discretionary-goods retail business – Canada is in much better shape, relatively speaking, than the US right now.

Petulance Personified: Vancouver Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh on Election Night 2008

Do you think that the Good Ship Liberal slipped further into the deep this past election because they weren’t angry, obstructive, or hyper-partisan enough? If so, then you’ll agree wholeheartedly with this display of petulance (and complete lack of humility) from former NDP Premier of British Columbia, and long-time Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who just moments earlier found out he barely squeaked by with a narrow victory over his unknown NDP rival. “Making Parliament Work, Liberal Style”

UPDATE 10/17: Mr. Dosanjh’s rival in this race was actually a Conservative, Wai Young – and the race isn’t over yet! An automatic judicial recount has been ordered due to the tiny 33-vote margin of victory for Mr. Dosanjh. He may not even make it to Ottawa again to be an obstructionist jerk! (h/t Dr. Dawg):

Say it aint so, Sarah! Harmer joins Canadian ingrates in anti-Harper harangue

One of my favorite Canadian musicians of all-time was Sarah Harmer – front-woman for one of the best groups of the ’90s, Weeping Tile, and auteur of the amazing 2000 solo album, You Were Here.

So, sad was I to discover tonight that the lovely Sarah has descended into the political gutter, joining an ensemble of otherwise little-known and mediocre-at-best musicians brought together by the international leftist agitation group Avaaz to record a “Save the Planet: Stop Harper” anthem. No, this is not a joke! They’ve gone ‘We are the World” – or, more accurately, “Northern Lights” – for an over-the-top partisan message that includes juvenile personal attacks, in addition to the usual insane hyperbole used to rile up suckers to a socialist agenda.

So, Sarah, here’s what you’ve done: you’ve made yourself a partisan demagogue hack. To what end? The earth? Puh-lease. You’ve moved exactly zero votes. And, most importantly, you have joined a group that has become hypocricy personified: the same ingrates who have spent as much time in their careers filling out government grant applications as they have making music, while bitching that the end of their corrupting gravy train is a national emergency.

Viva Harper – all whining ingrates, off the dole!