Blue Like You

Archive for December 4th, 2007

This is great stuff for political junkies who just can’t get enough of the Schreiber circus. We now have a blow-by-blow transcript, courtesy of the National Post.

I had hoped that Committee Chair Paul Szabo might have recovered a smidgen of his dignity after the first subservient performance, but alas! It was not to be:

11:10 a.m. — More preamble from committee chair Paul Szabo. Schreiber looks cool and collected. Szabo opens with an apology?! Apparently Canadians are expressing disgust that Schreiber was escorted to his house in handcuffs. Szabo seems to feel bad for subjecting Schreiber to “ridicule and mockery.”
“The shame of one Canadian is the shame of all Canadians. Those who are responsible will take steps to make certain such a spectacle does not happen again.”

Szabo goes on to complain that the hearing have been described as a political circus. “This is not a political circus, this is the Parliament of Canada,” he says, huffily. Same thing, some might say.

…”So now I am feeling somewhat like a beggar, I am empty. I don’t know whether it is a Christmas gift or a burden. But for sure it will help you.”

Christmas for the opposition for sure. He (Schreiber) offers to dig for more, if it isn’t enough. He will more than likely be taken up on that offer.

11:57 a.m. — “This is a wonderful Christmas gift to us,” gushes Szabo after Schreiber hands over the much-ballyhooed documents.

I don’t think I can take much more of this.

These hearings should come with a disclaimer - Warning! May induce vomiting.

A while ago I wondered why some key Liberals and Liberal media were against opening up this can of worms.

The answer may lie here - Key Liberal Pushed Schreiber Project. (H/T National Newswatch)

To anyone who feels there is currently no leader in Ontario who reflects your views, check this out - Draft a Leader.

Related: Will Conservatives let Tory stay on as party leader?

Kudos to Jonathan Kay for diffusing some of the hot air emanating from yesterday’s Star.

Today’s National Post editorial focuses on the failures of Kyoto and the ironic hypocrisy of the upcoming Bali conference itself - Son of Kyoto:

…The UN is hosting a major conference this week and next in Bali, Indonesia, to negotiate a successor agreement to Kyoto. What lessons have the delegates drawn from the first treaty’s flaws? None, apparently. If anything, their proposals for a Kyoto II suggest an accord that would be worse than the original.

While nominally binding more nations to reduction targets, the UN in reality appears intent on making the same three dozen wealthy countries make the bulk of the sacrifices. At the same time, it would saddle them with an additional burden: sending hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to developing nations in order to ensure that what marginal emission reductions those countries are called on to make can be achieved cost-free.

The sheer size of the Bali gathering shows how the global-warming movement has become an industry unto itself. During their negotiations on emission reductions to save the planet, the 20,000 delegates and observers in Bali will generate a greater carbon footprint than all the residents of a city the size of Victoria, Halifax or London, Ont., would produce in a month. The Canadian Climate Action Network, which includes some of this country’s best-known eco-crusaders, boasted Monday that it was sending 60 participants. Flying those delegates and their confreres from around the world to the remote resort island will generate 110,000 tonnes of CO2, alone.

But then, this do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do attitude should not be surprising: The most strident champions of carbon abatement are unaccountable NGOs and celebrity environmentalists who travel around the world feting one another, drinking their own green Kool-Aid…

Exactly. And if any of those eco-evangelists feel the need for a brief diversion, there’s plenty to atone for afterwards.

Cutting through the hype is a challenge for the average Canadian, but let me make this perfectly clear - It will affect your own bottom line. As Ultramar vice-president Louis Forget said of Quebec’s ‘green tax’, “Somehow, the consumers will pay for it.”

Oh yes, we will pay and pay and pay again.

Those of us who still have jobs, that is.