Correction!

I am a big, fat (figuratively speaking) LIAR!!!

According to Steve Vellacott, I am a LIAR because I willfully failed to amend an earlier post to reflect that the meeting between President Obama and Michael Ignatieff was 35 minutes and not, as I had originally stated, 15 minutes in length. Silly me. I had thought this matter had been clearly resolved in the comments to that particular thread, but for the sake of people who are catastrophically lazy or simply cannot read, allow me to make the following correction:

The meeting between the POTUS and the leader of the Official Opposition (with the member for Toronto Centre in tow) lasted 35 minutes and not, as had been stated earlier 15 minutes. During this time, it’s understood that the issues of the new way of doing politics, various challenges associated with operating in a minority government and dealing with Stephen Harper, navigating the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through Congress, trade protectionism and the problematic nature of the “Buy America” provision in the stimulus legislation, the thorny legal disposition of Omar Khadr in Guantánamo, and the War in Afghanistan were all discussed “at length”…

And if you believe that, I have some real estate in Palm Beach you may be interested in…

Beaver Tail!

Can we rip off YouTube videos from Jeff Jedras? Yes, we can!

Here’s the much sought after footage of Obama at the Byward Market “buying” what he described as “Canadian cookies” and adding a new dimension to the expression “free trade”…

Okay, I promise this is the last ever mention of Obama’s visit to Canada, except as the subject may come up in passing at some point in the future.

WARNING: Moral Hazard Ahead!

Surely you knew this sort of nonsense would be coming from the moment President Obama announced his latest “bailout” aimed at individual mortgage holders that are already “underwater” or presently in serious risk of being in foreclosure. First, the entirely expected visceral reaction from Bob Thompson:

A slightly modified version of this animated rant was delivered to the mob traders on the floor of the NSE by CNBC editor Rick Santelli:

Obama’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs now steps in with a mild dose of reality…

No Need to Read

Look, Pat has done all the heavy lifting for you already…

Somewhat amusing today for its Canadian content.

Gag Me With a Trowel

Good grief, Richard Gwyn’s tragic column in the Toronto Star this morning is absolutely wretched drivel:

Unless all my instincts are dulled and my antennae have rusted (most certainly possible), I’m pretty sure Ignatieff is going to become our next prime minister…This thought, which has been percolating in my head for a while, went crystalline in mid-week when I read a piece by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, based on a recent conversation he and some other journalists had with Obama aboard Air Force One.. Obama then remarked to Herbert that occasionally in history, real change was possible: “It’s not a certainty, but it’s possible.” Herbert asked whether Obama thought the world was now in the midst of one of those potential historical moments. Obama answered: “Yes, I firmly believe that.”

For some curious reason, Gwyn foolishly tipped off readers at the outset… Yes Richard, your instincts are indeed “dulled” and your “antennae” have evidently “rusted” beyond all hope given that you’re “percolating” the relentlessly inane, faith-based mutterings of the NYT’s most self-righteously windy scribe into some “crystalline” form in your own dense noggin.

The New Ethos

Plan To Start Little Stationery Store Too Sad For Bank To Deny Loan

As usual, The Onion accurately skewers the current zeitgeist in meltdown land.

Several factors reportedly contributed to their generous offer, most notably having to watch the kind-faced old man pull from his pocket a small, dog-eared slip of paper — worn soft as felt from years of repeated handling — on which he had written a number of potential store names, including “Notable Notes,” “The Jottery,” and “Creamsby’s Sheaves.”…

Pointless in Excelsius

Allow me to call “bullshit” on Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff with respect to his cursory 15 minute meeting with President Obama. Following his brief encounter in the Billy Bishop lounge at the Ottawa airport, he rushed to the cameras claiming to have discussed all manner of things with the new U.S. president.

Rubbish. Ignatieff’s account of their meeting was nothing short of a highly inventive, utterly bogus fabrication stitched together by extravagant flights of wishful thinking.

There is simply no conceivable way imaginable that the wide range of highly involved topics (“We talked about a new politics, about dealing with the Harper government, how he got the stimulus package through… about protectionism and the ‘buy America’ provision… we raised the issue of Mr. Khadr… we talked at length about Afghanistan…”) that he glibly claimed to have been discussed with the U.S. president could have been covered within the paltry amount of time allotted. Sorry “Michael” but you’ve just conclusively proven yourself to be a blatant and shameless LIAR beyond any reasonable doubt. How sad that you chose to die on this particular molehill.