PALIN AND WALLIN: RIGHT WING DIVAS COMING TO COWTOWN

PALIN (holding dead fish) Coming to Cowtown

WALLIN: Broadcasting Diva and political operator will moderate discussion

Once again trying to prove Phineas T. Barnum’s* truism that that there’s a sucker born every minute, a pair of Calgary promoters are bringing in Sarah Palin to impart her wit and wisdom to the residents of cowtown on March 6. See: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Sarah+Palin+sets+date+with+Calgary/2521080/story.html

In case you missed it, Calgary was the first Canadian city that hosted Karl Rove and George W. Bush in their Canadian pickpocket debuts after they had left office. See: http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2009/02/george-w-bush-is-coming-to-town-as.html and

http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2008/08/fraser-institute-invites-you-to-evening.html

I say ‘pickpocket’ because just as gullible Calgarians shelled out hundreds each to hear Bush and his henchman say nothing of consequence, 1000 of them are expected to pay 150 to 200 dollars for a ticket to receive the same from Palin - unless one considers seeing in the flesh a true celebrity from the dumb and dumber era of infotainment as something of value.

Ah, but I’m being churlish.

The star-studded event will be held at the Palomino Room at Stampede Park - yes, home of the Calgary Stampede and a favorite gathering place for the cowtown’s knuckle-dragging hard right. I say ‘star-studded’ because the event will include a question and answer session moderated by Senator Pamela Wallin, formerly a famous talking head on Canadian television news networks and now a formidable political operator in her own right.

Apart from her career in the media Wallin has displayed an amazing talent for getting governments of Canada of any political stripe to advance her career and resume. First of all the Chretien Liberals gave her the cushy appointment of Canada’s Consul General in the Big Apple where for a number of years she entertained the rich and powerful on behalf of Canada at her swanky Park Avenue digs. When she was done with that the Harper Conservatives put her on the laughable Manley panel to figure out what to do in Afghanistan. After having done such a bang-up job on that assignment – remember the panel said that 1000 extra troops and a little more equipment could do the job in Kandahar - the Harperites then appointed her to the Senate. Not bad for a kid from Wadena, Saskatchewan who once was a member of the far left Waffle group faction of the NDP: See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waffle; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Wallin

Just like Bush and Rove, Palin’s Calgary gig will be her Canadian speaking debut. Christian Darbyshire, one of the promoters of the boondoggle believes that Calgary is an ideal spot for Palin’s one and a half hour drivel because Calgary, like Alaska, is into oil and gas. He said, “She’s got some interesting insights and I think people in Calgary will be very interested in hearing what she has to say.” Probably so, given the thousands around town who share her red neck culture and believe that Barack Obama is about to initiate death panels for granny.

Darbyshire’s partner in the project Andy McCreath showed that he too knew his oats saying that the Palin-Calgary match-up was ideal because, “Calgary is a Republican town,” and that “There’s lots of Americans living in Calgary.” Dead on once again. Since the discovery of the Leduc elephant oil field way back in 1947 Calgary has been hands down the most American and Republican – some would say Texas Republican - of Canadian cities.

Indeed the boys do know their stuff when it comes to marketing big names in these parts. Among the has-beens with checkered pasts they have brought to town and whose pockets they have lined with cash from a gullible public are Tony Blair, Alan Greenspan, Rudy Giuliani, and Colin Powell. Although none of those today would likely win a popularity contest, they have also organized gabfests for the likes of Bill Clinton and Lance Armstrong.

No doubt the former governor and vice presidential candidate, Fox News political analyst, author, and university drop-out will toss enough red meat at what will be her largely hard right audience so that at the end of the day they will give her a rousing standing ovation. After which, of course, she’ll chortle all the way back to her bank in Wasila, Alaska to make the hundred thou or so deposit. A sucker born every minute? You betcha. There will be a thousand of them out at Stampede Park to hear the ditz.
* See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There

HAVE CANADIANS BECOME NEOCON LEMMINGS? OR ARE THEY JUST PLAYING POSSUM?

DOES THIS REPRESENT THE CANADIAN PEOPLE?

OR DOES THIS?

As I look at recent current polls the increasingly nagging question that keeps reverberating in my brain is, Has Harper already changed Canada in his almost four years of power?

There are many indications that perhaps he has. Canadians appear to have been sucked in by negative swiftboat tactics that destroy the reputations of good people. They have ignored Harper’s history as a far-right tub-thumper while he was head of the National Citizens Coalition, and that he had his nose so far up George W. Bush's ass he could see Tony Blair. Canadians seemed to pay little attention to Harper's fascistic attempted coup to destroy opposition parties by cutting off their funding last December, and they even seemed to fall for the canard that the evil was not the threat to democracy but the threat of a coalition.

Canadians gave Harper a pass during the last federal election when he tried to hoodwink the whole country into believing the big lie that there was little wrong with the economy. They seem to pooh-pooh his spending of gazillions of stimulus largesse only in Conservative ridings.

Neither do Canadians seem to recognize or care about Harper’s foreign policy gaffes and screwups that damage our international reputation and business relationships and put Canadian lives at risk. Canadians do not seem to have given a hoot about the confinement and torture of Islamic Canadian citizens abroad on trumped up charges brought by third world gestapoes, while Harper either does nothing, or worse yet, throws roadblocks in front of the efforts of those confined to extricate themselves.

Canadians seem to be ignoring or paying little heed to lies repeatedly fed to them by their government about Afghanistan – lies such as, that the allies are making headway, or that Karzai is an honest and decent man, or that we are bringing the Afghans the rule of law, or that we are making headway training Afghan police and soldiers. They have shown little concern for the Canadian lives lost and the cost to our national treasury in what most certainly is to become one of the West’s great lost causes.

Despite the Harper spear headed character assassinations, despite his government's dismal record in domestic and foreign policy or in protecting Canadian citizens abroad, and despite his government's lies and obfuscations, Canadians don’t seem to care. What the hell is going on? Has Harper already turned this country into a nation of sheeplike neocons like himself? Have we become a bunch of unthinking conservative lemmings?

Or are Canadians just playing possum? ‘Playing possum’ means to convincingly pretend you are dead so that others leave you alone. In boxing the definition is much more Machiavellian and lethal. It means pretending you were dead or asleep until your opponent gets careless and leaves an opening so you can deliver the knockout punch or move in for the kill. The famed middle-weight champ Jake La Motta (above, bloodied but unbowed) was good at playing possum. He won a lot of important fights that way.

Let us hope the Canadian people are just playing possum. Or perhaps just in the process of giving Harper enough rope as the saying goes for his lynching later on. Otherwise, this country is going to change, and not for the better.

OBAMA: NO TIME FOR TALK WITH RIFF-RAFF LIKE GORDON BROWN

Once again President Obama is doing the right thing. This time he’s sticking it to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the lame-duck leader of the once mighty, now disgraced British Labour Party. Obama within the past few days has turned down no less than five requests from Brown and his minions to have a meeting together at the UN or at the G20 summit.
See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/23/barack-obama-gordon-brown-talks

While in New York Obama had bi-lateral meetings with Russian president Medvedev, Chinese president Hu Jintao, and Japanese prime minister Hatoyama, but not riff-raff like Brown. Obama obviously has his standards.

Obama is still pissed at the Brown-Gaddafi Faustian deal to have the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi released from prison and shipped back home to Libya so that BP could fatten its profits with the proceeds of a gazillion barrels of Libyan oil. For Brown, the only ethical lapse of this sorry deal was that his pal Gaddafi promised a low-key homecoming for Al-Megrahi and didn’t deliver. Instead the Colonel gave the convicted murderer of 270 innocent victims a hero’s welcome. Unlike Brown and his oily and unctuous predecessor Tony Blair - now taking up space as the most useless special Middle East peacemaker in history - Obama has principles.

Not only is Obama ignoring him, the hapless Brown was even outmuscled for a prime time speech slot at the UN by his pal Gaddafi whose 100-minute wacko speech left hardly any time at all for Brown’s snore fest about climate change.

But Brown has even bigger problems than being snubbed and ignored by Obama or bulldozed and elbowed out of the way by his pal Gaddafi. The lastest of a very long list of beefs from within his party and caucus is that he is now under fire for refusing to fire his Attorney General who was convicted of employing an illegal immigrant. Backbenchers, ex-ministers, and party regulars are demanding that he put the party and the country out of their misery by leaving office now, while the party still may have a chance to avoid a cataclysmic defeat in the next election expected in 2010.

This could be the beginning of the end to the once mighty Labourites. If so, because of Brown and Blair there will be few tears should it come to pass.

THE DISGRACE OF THE BRITISH LABOUR PARTY: IT'S TIME TO THROW THE BUMS OUT!

Simply put, by the time he left office Tony Blair had become a disgrace. It took awhile for people to figure it out. He had style and elegance, and could give a good speech. Those attributes and skills were good enough to get him elected as leader of the British Labour Party in 1994 at the young age of 41. At the time, Labour had been out of office for several years. It was hankering for someone who looked young and vigorous and who had the bearing and potential to win the big enchilada and become Prime Minister. So too was the British public that had grown tired of the Conservatives under the hard as nails Margaret Thatcher and the doltish John Major. The talented Blair was embraced by first his party and then his country, and by 1997 was Prime Minister.

As a politician Blair had an eel-like quality to him that saw him move from being a socialist to the centre right and in the process create the right leaning New Labour out of the traditional old left-wing Labour Party. Indeed, under Blair’s watch the British Labour Party for the most part became indistinguishable policy-wise from the Conservative Party.

Blair went off the rails with the beginning of the ‘War on Terror’ in 2001. He quickly wrapped himself in the American flag and offered his unflinching and misguided support to George W. Bush. Through the whole of the disaster of the Iraq war Bush had no greater admirer, yes man, and lackey. Blair promoted the Bush lies about weapons of mass destruction, and led his country into the rag-tag coalition of the willing which proceeded to make an even greater mess in Iraq without any plan for cleaning it up. His coziness with Bush earned for himself in his own country the same disrespect and opprobrium that Bush gradually acquired in his. Like Bush, Blair has even been accused of war crimes.

Blair was also a man who looked out for Blair. During his years in office he repeatedly displayed a Republican Party-like affection for money and power. His genuflections to Bush were an example. Indeed his kowtowing to ‘W” earned him the coveted Congressional Gold Medal in 2003. He also enjoyed the company of more unsavory representatives of wealth and power. He vacationed with the likes of Silvio Burlusconi and Rupert Murdoch, and acquired a somewhat odious record of stroking media barons. The trappings of and proximity to wealth and corporate power were important to Blair, the former socialist.

The Labour Party gradually grew exasperated with Blair and finally sent him packing in 2007. By then he cuddled up to enough people in high places that upon his resignation as PM in June 2007 his pals in the UN, the U.S. Bush administration, Russia, and the European Union – self described as the Quartet of International Mediators - made him Middle East Envoy to promote peace . This was despite the fact that not only were his credentials for objectivity in the region never high, they were most certainly shattered with his blind devotion to Bush. Predictably, Blair’s record as a peace envoy is not enviable. An example of his effectiveness was that the press noticed his attendance at the opening of the Armani store in Knightsbridge during the first nine days of the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza hostilities.

Blair proved, as countless but well-connected failures have proved in the past, that friends in high places can compensate for a lot. Presently he is a senior advisor to JP Morgan Chase and Zurich Financial Services and performs obscure but expensive services for other giants in the corporate world. He is reported to be making a cool $ 15 million a year, and stupid people throughout the world continue to shell out $250,000 in fees for one of his 90 minute rubber-chicken circuit snore fests.

In recent weeks it appears that the moral decay that was so evident in Blair’s final years in office has been passed on to the Labour government of his successor Gordon Brown. It has recently been disclosed that the promise of future trade and oil deals helped get the convicted Lockerbie bomber, 57 year-old Libyan national Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, an early release from a UK slammer and back safely into the welcoming arms of Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Tripoli. The oil deal was for Britain’s mega oil company flagship British Petroleum, or BP – which, by the way, is still reviled in Iran as the great Satan because of its earlier days as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company when it used to siphon off gazillions of revenues from Iranian oil straight into the British Exchequer.

Scottish authorities initially took the fall for al-Megrahi's early release, saying that the convicted killer of 259 people was released on compassionate grounds because he was dying of prostate cancer. Naturally, victims’ families joined opposition politicians and sensible British citizens in condemning the move. Prime Minister Gordon Brown denied complicity in any Al-Megrahi for oil and business swap. However, Brown’s Justice Secretary Jack Straw says that a BP oil deal in Libya was very much a factor. Other UK officials say that the release of Al-Megrahi was an attempt to bring in Libya from the international cold and improve British – Libyan trade. Col. Gadhafi’s son who was part of the negotiations that led to al-Megrahi’s release says that Libya put the heat on the Brits to include al-Megrahi in a prisoner release program tied to future trade deals. Documents have surfaced which seem to confirm the Straw/Gadhafi version of events.

It is also true that BP inked a $ 900 million oil deal with Libya and the company admits that it urged the government to sign a prisoner transfer deal, although it points out that it did not specifically refer to the bomber. Brown continues to profess innocence in the whole matter – much as the piano player in the bordello who claimed he didn’t know what was going on upstairs.

Also, in the past few days it was reported that The UK’s thirst for oil has led it into further moral quicksand. Sources say that the UK’s secretive SAS – one of the world’s most efficient commando units – is giving special forces training to Libyan soldiers. This is the same SAS who fought IRA rebels in Northern Ireland who were armed to the teeth with weapons and explosives supplied by, guess who? The Libyans. The government’s response is that Libya has changed from rogue state to responsible ally, a conclusion hardly in keeping with the very public hero’s welcome bestowed upon Al Megrahi when he arrived back in Tripoli after his years of incarceration for the mass killing conviction.

The story is clearly one of a political party having lost its moral compass. These events convey the unmistakable principle that in the UK, if one has access to a large supply of oil and is prepared to part with some of it to British interests one can get away with murder. Or to put it another way, to the Labour government of Great Britain money and oil, trumps all else - including justice. This is the legacy of Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown. In these circumstances the British people should either provide the British Labour Party with a very long respite from political power in order to allow it to try to restore to itself some semblance of honour and principle, or, throw it into the trash heap of history. In light of recent events, I believe that the latter alternative is the best.
See:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/05/uk-official-oil-played-a-_n_278112.html http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hfXTbOTyYDD_tqwD8e1cX67p2x6QD9ALST5O2
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/09/05/libya.megrahi.britain/index.html

GETTING AHEAD WITH TONY BLAIR: IT IS NOT WHAT YOU KNOW. IT IS NOT WHO YOU KNOW. IT IS ABOUT WHO YOU 'YES.'

We've seen it before in business, government, and the professions. The inept and incompetent moving from one disaster of their own making, to the next - promoted all the way as a result of powerful and influential friends. Not because of competence or success in the last position held. But because of the tender loving care from people in high places, who may value loyalty to the exclusion of all other traits, or who put a premium on pedigree or social status to the exclusion of ability, record of success, or even intelligence.

The name of Robert S. McNamara comes to mind. The wunderkind Eagle Scout, Harvard MBA, and Ford Motor Company CEO who trashed the Edsel - so far so good - together with his boss LBJ, embraced the Domino Theory of third world countries going communist. The result was the build up of American forces in Vietnam, the subsequent 9 years American participation in a civil war, the millions of casualties among innocent Vietnamese, Cambodians and young Americans. Finally, there was the admission of failure. There was defeat and abandonment of the cause. His reward: President of the World Bank.

Similarly there is the career of Henry Kissinger. Harvard Scholar and Professor, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford Administrations, Kissinger bears the dubious distinction of being behind the bombing of Cambodia during the Viet Nam War. The direct result was the Cambodian civil war, from which the Khmer Rouge emerged victorious. The aftermath was a genocide of several million innocent Cambodians. He was behind CIA support in bringing to power General Pinochet in Chile. He actively supported the Argentina's dirty war carried out by the Military Junta. His travel is so restricted, for fear of arrest for war crimes, that for years he has traveled outside the United States only with the utmost caution. The result: a lengthy list of Corporate Directorships, including the infamous Hollinger International (where he too paid little attention to the financial statements), and an advisory capacity with George W. Bush, rendering advice on how to deal with Iraq!

More recently, we have the case of Paul Wolfowitz, the notoriously infamous neocon Deputy Secretary of Defence, who was one of the architects of the disasterous invasion of Iraq and its consequences, the greatest military misadventure in the history of the United States. His reward: like McNamara, President of the World Bank. He has since had to resign because he was caught using his influence getting his banker girlfriend a sweetheart job deal. What's next for him? A nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize?

Canada is somewhat less forgiving of real or perceived ineptitude. When John Turner failed to inspire the masses as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, he returned to a modest private law practice, and significant corporate directorships eluded him. Equally with ex-Alberta Premier Don Getty, when he left office after a less than stellar performance as Premier. However there is the exceptional case of Premier Ed Stelmach of Alberta. Although it may sound incongruous mentioning his name in such lofty company, by Canadian standards his career should have been torpedoed as a result of his dismal performance as Infrastructure Minister, Transportation Minister and member of the Agenda and Priorities Committee in the Alberta government. Instead, the Tory rank and file rewarded him with the Party Leadership and Premiership. It will take his forthcoming fall in the next provincial election to put Ed in his rightful place of Canadian politicians who screwed up.

And in recent days we have the strange case of Tony Blair. Charming, charismatic, and bright, Blair was in the early part of his career as Prime Minister, highly popular in the country. Although his record at this early point in history appears to be somewhat pedestrian, his policies included a greater reliance on market forces, and more spending on health and education. He admirably played a significant role in the Northern Ireland Peace process.

Blair's downfall was his slavish support of the policies of George W. Bush in respect to the unwinnable Iraq war. In his country, he appeared to be a patsy or handmaiden to the widely disliked President. He embellished existing intelligence on Sadam's WMD capability, the basis of which proved to be false. He indulged in identical Bushite rhetoric in support of Britain and the United States' role in the conflict, all of which further diminished his standing in the eyes of his people, who increasingly opposed the war. In most of the Arab world he became as much of an anathema as his ally Bush. He was ultimately hounded from office by the British people and his party.

Blair's reward: an appointment as Middle East Envoy for the United Nations, approved by the European Union and Russia (one wonders how and why), and, of course, by the United States (which is quite understandable). He botched Iraq. Instead of letting him mercifully pass into history, his pals give him another chance. This time he may botch the rest of the Middle East.