Iggy Busted by the Raging Grannies

Yet another one of Ignatieff’s “re-interpretations” it seems; this time on the exportation of asbestos to third-world countries:

As reported in the Gazette recently:

At a Victoria town-hall meeting on March 28, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff acknowledged the double standard whereby the Canadian government is spending millions of dollars to remove asbestos from the Parliament Buildings, while at the same time promoting the export of asbestos to the developing world. “If asbestos is bad for parliamentarians in the Parliament of Canada, it just has to be bad for everybody else,” said Ignatieff. “Our export of this dangerous product overseas has got to stop.”

By April 1, after strong pressure from the asbestos lobby, Mr. Ignatieff did an about face, saying, “We have an obligation to international agreements to the countries that we export to, to make them aware of the risks. That is all I said.” Many of the 300 people in the audience may disagree with that re-interpretation.

How can anyone believe what Ignatieff says if he’s simply going to cave under pressure and sell-out to corporate lobbyists?

“Debate” O’Reilly Style

Sometimes it’s just too easy to make fun of Bill O. In fact, no effort is required at all; just post the clip and let him do the work himself. Here he is “debating” (i.e., shouting down and talking over) the torture issue with Newsday columnist and Fox News contributor Ellis Henican:

Also, I don’t know why O’Reilly keeps repeating the idea that “enhanced interrogation” techniques foiled the potential attack on Los Angeles when this is patently false. Never let facts get in the way of a good argument, I guess.

Cheney: “A Man Who Frightens Easily”

Granted that Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, the Chief of Staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration since leaving the State Department in 2005, but his assessment of Dick Cheney and the general fear mongering of the Bush administration in the post 9/11 environment is pretty insightful.

“Vice-President Cheney is a man who frightens easily. All you have to do is go back to his five deferments during the Vietnam conflict, his behaviour post 9/11, undisclosed locations and so forth.”

On a related note, here’s a great discussion with Bruce Fein of the American Freedom Agenda discussing the obligations of President Obama under the Constitution with regards to the torture issue.