Because They LIE… All the Time

In addition to the economic forecasters contradicting Flaherty’s ludicrous claim that “nobody… not one economist” predicted the global recession — wickedly pointed out by “Grit Girl” in the widely circulating video shown below — I’d add the following individuals who were well ahead of the curve on this: Bill White, formerly of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank for International Settlements; Harvard University’s Ken Rogoff; Nouriel Roubini of New York University; Wynne Godley of Cambridge; Bernard Connolly of AIG Financial Products; and of course Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital.

Doesn’t Sunny Jim realize that 65 percent of Canadians aren’t gullible rubes?

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Economic Action Man Speaks!

In case you missed Stephen Harper’s horn-tooting speech this morning about the economy to the good burghers of the Brampton Board of Trade, you’ll certainly be no worse off for having done so. Don’t however allow Scott Feschuk’s hilarious live-blogging account of it to pass you by:

Every politician has his or her strengths and weaknesses. Doing “hope” is not one of Stephen Harper’s strengths. He’s not a guy who gives off vibes suggesting he’s in possession of things like optimism, confidence or a human heart. Whenever he attempts a grin, I can’t help but feel for the 12 facial muscles being called into action to form the “smile.” They’re like the Teamsters of his face. “What? Again?? We just worked last August.”

As has been noted elsewhere, there are some pretty good reasons why Stephen Harper shouldn’t be penning his own speeches, but then he seems to be having some difficulty hanging onto writers, so perhaps he can’t be blamed too much on that score for coming across sounding like a jerk.

An Inconvenient Question

From Reason TV: At the 2nd annual International Conference on Climate Change, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) warns against that “radical global warmongers are now enacting” in the Golden State and elsewhere.

In 2006, he notes, California called for a 25 percent reduction in man-made carbon dioxide emissions by 2020–something that could not be accomplished even by junking every car on the state’s roads. At the same time, the state legislature called for $40 billion in infrastructure improvements, an undertaking that will release massive amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

Such contradictory policies are common, says McClintock, and will lead to a greatly weakened economy in California and elsewhere, all in the name of fighting exaggerated effects of climate change.

Morning Whine

Joe Scarborough and the gang indulge in a little group whining about how unspeakably mean that well-known “ideologue” Jon Stewart has been to poor old Jim Cramer and the other financial wizards at CNBC. Especially amusing is Scarborough indignantly ripping on Stewart, claiming that he’s no longer “speaking truth to power” now that Obama is president.

Should be interesting to what, if any, response this provokes from The Daily Show camp.

Update: I should really have made note of Don Harrold and his numerous debunkings of Cramer and CNBC in the past.

The New Hoovervilles

A sign of the times, I guess. DKos has more photos from the “Bushville” in Sacramento.

Even though these kinds of shanty towns have been springing up in various cities around the U.S. for over a year now, you can be sure that on right-wing blogs these will be referred to as Obamavilles.