Werner Patels - A Dose of Common Sense

Spook’s wife blows cover

Sir John Sawers was to become the next head of MI6. His chances of keeping his appointment intact are virtually nil at this point – courtesy of his Facebook-obsessed wife:

The wife of the new head of MI6 has caused a major security breach and left his family exposed after publishing photographs and personal details on Facebook.

Sir John Sawers is due to take over as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in November, putting him in charge of all of Britain’s spying operations abroad.

But entries by his wife Shelley on the social networking site have exposed potentially compromising details about where they live and work, their friends’ identities and where they spend their holidays. On the day her husband was appointed she congratulated him on the site using his codename “C”.

Lady Sawers had put virtually no privacy protection on her account, making it visible to any of the site’s 200m users around the world who choose to be in the open-access London social network on Facebook.

With all due respect, but some people are simply too dumb to be allowed anywhere near a computer. His wife, Shelley, is a teacher and one must wonder what sort of background she has.

Britain’s intelligence services are very strict about keeping the identity of their staff and agents a well-kept state secret. Quite often, even family members aren’t always allowed to know that, say, Uncle Dick works for MI6.

For Shelley to reveal so much detailed information, names and photos, it was a major faux-pas – one that could ultimately cost lives.

In all fairness, and in light of recent news, one must state the obvious: And we thought Sarah Palin was a ditz.

Ignatieff is absolutely right, but does he mean it?

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has spoken the unblemished truth at the Calgary Stampede (emphasis added):

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff touted Saturday the economic virtues and national reach of Alberta's oilsands, urging Canadians to take pride in the mammoth industrial development, which has touched off international environmental opposition.

Speaking at a party fundraiser Stampede breakfast in Calgary, Ignatieff said financial ripples from the oilsands can be felt throughout the country - from East Coast workers flying to Alberta for jobs to a northern Ontario factory making pipes for the oilpatch in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

He also said Canada’s “centre of economic gravity” will shift west to Calgary within his lifetime.

“The one instinct I've had from the beginning about the industry at the heart of this economy is this is a national industry - a national industry in which all Canadians should take pride,” Ignatieff told about 600 Grit supporters at the Calgary Zoo.

“The Liberal Party of Canada must never, ever, ever run against that industry or against Alberta.”

These words are absolutely true, in every respect. They are so true and heartfelt, in fact, that they make one Calgary Herald reporter “blush”.

It’s very reassuring to hear that under Ignatieff, the Liberal Party will never run against Alberta’s oilsands and Alberta itself. That would certainly be a welcome change – for the first time ever – but Iggy is only  the party’s leader. Too many in the Liberal Party are so far on the left that they will have a serious problem with Iggy’s Stampede comments.

The only question is: does he actually mean it? And: if he does, will he be able to stand his ground against the radical lefties in his party who should really be in the NDP instead of the Liberal Party?

Time will tell, but don’t hold your breath. If the Dionistas get the upper hand in the party again, they will do everything in their power to destroy Alberta (and Western Canada), because those people are driven by only one thing – other than their diseased leftist ideology: their hatred of Alberta and Western ideals (the only viable and true ideals, in fact).

Palin a quitter?

TIME magazine’s own blog, Swampland, has compiled fairly strong evidence of Sarah Palin’s tendency to quit when the going gets tough.

First, Palin changed colleges five times in five years!

And, when things got too hot in the kitchen, as it were, she also quit as head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission:

Palin said it was hard to do her job with potential civil penalties hanging over her head if she talked about what went on at her agency. She said the experience was taking the "oomph" out of her passion for government service and she decided to quit rather than becoming bitter.

Makes you wonder what sort of pressure may have triggered this latest episode of her I-Quit-itis.

Speaking of Palin, it seems that conservatives who think for themselves, instead of following some kind of herd mentality or echo chamber, are facing a lot of criticism, and insults, from those who demand blind allegiance to Sarah “The Goddess” Palin.

Ridiculous. Note to Palin worshippers: get a life!

Hell yeah, Sarah, baby!

The moment John McCain named her as his running mate was the time the Republicans lost the race for the White House. A lot of Republicans, and small-c conservatives, had been extremely uneasy about McCain’s conservative credentials, and even though Sarah Palin’s commitment to conservative principles and values are beyond reproach, her deficits in other areas made it impossible for (too) many Americans to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket.

With her sudden announcement that she’d resign as governor of Alaska by the end of this month, she’s has yet again set in motion the wheels of rumour mills everywhere. Is there a scandal in her administration about to be uncovered? Does she, therefore, want to put as much distance between Alaska and herself as possible? Is she trying to free up her time so she can focus all her attention and efforts on the 2012 race? Inquiring minds want to know.

Her little press conference at her home in Wasilla, Alaska, has shed no light on these questions whatsoever. In fact, Americans now know less than before. Her “speech” has been called one of the worst in recent political history. Instead of explaining herself, she presented a chain of mangled and dangling non-sequitur metaphors and empty platitudes. She might just as well have recited a poem or sung a song; the impact would have been the same. Given current events, she could have kept silent and simply performed a moonwalk à la Michael Jackson – ironically and sadly, this would have been more effective than her actual speech.

The Republicans are desperate. Nothing less than their medium to long-term survival is at stake. Regardless of where one stands on former president George W. Bush’s track office, his time in the Oval Office has cost the Republican party – and the conservative movement – most of its credibility. Whether this “punishment by voters” is deserved or not is not really the issue anymore. What matters now is that the party can find a way to turn its fortunes around.

Stelmach wants “big thinking”

It’s not really news anymore: Alberta is in serious trouble. No, not because of the recession, which ranks merely as an add-on to the problems caused by a premier who doesn’t know what he’s doing. The problem is the guy people know as “Premier Ed Stelmach”.

Now, though, Stelmach has decided to seek professional help. No, it’s not what you’re thinking, even though he might need that too. He’s convened a “blue-chip panel” of experts to help him run the province:

Former federal cabinet minister David Emerson will chair a blue-chip panel set up to advise the Alberta government on its roller coaster economy and how to manage its assets, the province announced Thursday.

The 12-member group, which boasts business leaders, academics and former politicians, includes former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge, president and chief executive officer of GE Canada Elyse Allan and former Liberal deputy prime minister Anne McLellan.

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said he commissioned the panel to bring together experts from around the world to find ways to be more innovative and diversify the debt-free province's economy.

“I want them to think big,” Mr. Stelmach said.

At first glance, the panel members seem to be predominantly from the Liberal side of the spectrum – especially if one counts Emerson as a Liberal.

Taxpayers, however, must wonder, and rightly so, how much this blue-chip panel will cost. The members appointed to the panel are very well-known and certainly don’t come cheap. (Apparently, the premier decided against appointing me to the panel, because my going rate was way too steep for Stelmach’s inner circle of advisors.)

Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a government that could do all the necessary thinking by itself, instead of spending even more money on outside consultants?

Stelmach has been given expert advice before, such as on the reform of the oil royalties framework. He listened to the advice but then totally ignored it. The result of that action is something that every Albertan is painfully aware today: Alberta’s biggest economic disaster since Trudeau’s NEP.

So, will this be just another repeat of the usual Stelmach style of governance? Will taxpayers pay dearly for all those high-level experts, only to watch their premier ignore expert advice yet again?

Apart from this, it is highly doubtful that experts such as Emerson or McLellan can deal with another problem that seems to have infected a growing number of the Tory caucus and appears to be spreading about as quickly as the swine flu:

A backbench member of Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach's government is accused of verbally attacking a former sergeant-at-arms of the provincial legislature.

It's the third time in recent weeks that a caucus member has come under fire for shoot-from-the-hip comments.

Oscar Lacombe, who was a guest at the legislature on May 27 when the alleged incident occurred, Thursday recalled his encounter with Progressive Conservative MLA Broyce Jacobs.

Mr. Lacombe, an 80-year-old Korean War veteran, long-time bodyguard to premier Peter Lougheed and fringe political candidate, said Mr. Jacobs blamed him for costing him his seat in the 2004 provincial election and called him a “liar.”

“His parting words to me … which really teed me off, were, ‘I suppose if you had a gun you would shoot me,' ” Mr. Lacombe said.

“When someone accuses you of maybe going to shoot him, that's pretty damn serious stuff for a public servant.”

Too bad that Jacobs doesn’t have a Twitter account. Who knows what pearls of wisdom could be discovered there?

Vote Liberal next time, and we’ll have another Adscam

Stephen Taylor has made a crucial discovery on Twitter, which is quite revealing – not so much because of what was written on Twitter, as rather by whom:

RUMEUR DANS LES MÉDIAS: démission du PM (Harper) la semaine prochaine.

As Taylor has found out, the individuals behind this hoax – clearly designed to stir up trouble for the PM – represent a company that seems to be the “new and improved” Groupaction – the very company that was at the centre of the fraud actions of the then-Liberal government (a.k.a. Adscam). As Taylor explains:

GroupaXion New Media was owned by Jean Brault and headed up by Jean-Francois Dumas. Now, a man named Jean-Francois Dumas runs a Montreal new media firm called Influence Communication and he’s starting the spread of a rumour on Twitter about the Prime Minister resigning.

So, if the Liberals are using the same “Groupaction players” in their campaigning now, does this mean that a vote for the Liberals next time will also be a vote to bring back the Adscam crooks?

Sadly, it would appear so. Get ready for The Libranos, Part 2.

A vote for the Treaty of Lisbon is a vote against democracy

The harsh truth about the EU and the Treaty of Lisbon:

Ireland’s EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy has said that every political leader in Europe knew that a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would have been rejected by 95 per cent of the 27 member states.

Mr McCreevy yesterday expressed the view that the attitude of the leading politicians in other European states to last year’s No vote on Lisbon was realistic and understanding.

He contrasted that attitude to what he portrayed as the “shock horror” reaction of EU functionaries living inside the “Brussels beltway” and those of heads of state who were glad that they did not have to hold a referendum on the treaty.

This is why so many European governments who keep licking the boots of the goose-stepping eurocrats in Brussels decided to prevent their people from voting on the Treaty in a referendum and had the Treaty instead “ratified” by national parliament. The outcome of the Irish referendum last year was clear: the people said no to the Treaty, which is an abomination that would result in the member-states’ loss of sovereignty in a lot of critical areas. It would also prohibit any member from leaving the EU. What is more, it would also open the door to EU-wide taxes – at a critical time for Europe’s economy, when taxes should be lowered, rather than increased.

This site has always maintained that the EU is no longer a democratic organization. In fact, those who control it, from Brussels or Strasbourg, are corrupt and fascist mafia-types who are interested in only one thing: shovelling Europeans’ money into their own pockets.

Let’s not forget that the rule for the Treaty of Lisbon was quite simple: if just one member state rejects the Treaty, it will have to be abandoned and it’ll be dead for all intents and purpose. In a real democracy, the rules of the game are applied fairly and reliably, but not in Brussels. Thus, Ireland is forced to repeat the referendum, on October 2.

There’s no doubt that, if the Irish voted no again, they’d be pressured into voting again…and again…and again…until they smartened up and voted exactly as they were told. Does this sound like a democratic organization? No, not really. It looks like something out of Hugo Chavez’ playbook.

Irish voters are recommended that they inform themselves on what’s at stake. A vote for the Treaty of Lisbon is a vote against almost every existing EU member state and against democracy. Only a clear and resounding NO on October 2 will do.

Come on, folks, let some of that luck of the Irish rub off on your fellow Europeans: Vote for democracy and honesty by voting NO on the Treaty of Lisbon.

Steyn on Salman Hossain

Mark Steyn, eloquent as ever, uses STASIfer Lynch’s own words to define the offence committed by our beloved terrorist sympathizer in the Greater Toronto Area:

Hateful words can harm. So if you write a piece for Maclean's quoting hateful words like "mosquito" and "sheep" you'll be investigated by three different "human rights" commissions. If you publish some anodyne cartoons in The Western Standard with accompanying hateful captions about "freedom of speech", Shirlene McGovern will haul you in for interrogation. If you're a stand-up comedian and you put down two drunk lesbian hecklers using hateful words like "drunk" and "lesbian", you'll be put on trial by the Government of British Columbia. If you write a hateful letter to a small local newspaper in Alberta objecting to "the homosexual agenda", you'll be given a lifetime speech ban.

But, if you're Salman Hossain and you want to expound on the benefits of killing Canadian troops and shooting Jews, party on:

'I hope the German brothers were gonna blow up US-German bases in their country. We should do that here in Canada as well. Kill as many western soldiers as well so that they think twice before entering foreign countries on behalf of their Jew masters,' he wrote...

In addition, he singles out Jews, writing: 'When do I get to shoot a few Jews down for attempting to blow up dozens of mosques in America right after 9-11 - why f---ing target the Americans when the Jews are better?'

I can’t wait to read Steyn’s thoughts on the F**K Canada Day story.

Still think multiculturalism is healthy?

There are some immigrants who gladly play by the host country’s rules. They understand that immigration is a privilege and not a right. Immigration only works – for the host country – if newcomers are fully integrated, learn the language and internalize the principle of “When in Rome …”. Everything else, such as Canada’s failed multiculturalism, is a recipe for disaster and will eventually end in conflicts, including civil war.

We recently saw what the Tamil Tiger terrorists tried to do in Toronto and Ottawa. We also have just learned that, according to the Ontario (Dumb) Provincial Police, it is perfectly alright for a terrorist to incite violence and call for Jews and others to be killed on Canadian soil.

Now, on Canada Day Canadians are treated to this piece of evidence that shows, yet again, that we must become a lot more selective about the people we allow into this country:

As the rest of Canada celebrates the nation’s 142nd birthday today, a Vice President of the Canadian Arab Federation has labelled the country a “genocidal state” and the described its national day  as “F**k Canada Day.”

Omar Shaban, who lives in Vancouver, BC made these comments on his Facebook page, declaring, “It’s finally Canada Day ... Couldn't be more ashamed to be Canadian.”

As far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t have any reason to feel ashamed, because in my book, and that of a growing number of right-thinking Canadians, he’s not a Canadian, nor will he ever be.

This should be a wake-up call, illustrating the need to not only filter more carefully the intake of immigrants, but also to put in place a system that would allow us to deport scum from Canada speedily, including those who have already lied their way to Canadian citizenship.

Immigrants like Tarek Fatah or Mahfooz Kanwar should be role models to all others. Instead, sadly, they are frequently attacked and vilified by their own compatriots. Canada would welcome more Fatahs and Kanwars, but the likes of Shaban we can do without.

Follow-up:

Great comment about the story (and the goof at the centre of it):

I do all my Canada-hating on my own dime!

He hates Canada because of people like me. I hate Canada because of people like him. Who will win, I wonder...?

I have a feeling I'll be the one packing my bags first. He has govt patronage, a fear and intimidation factor, and access to more weaponry.

But when the tax takers like him outnumber the taxpayers like me, then what...?

Posted by: Kathy Shaidle at July 1, 2009 3:03 PM

Further reading:

• CHQR
• Jay Currie
• Blazing Cat Fur

Time for Ed Stelmach to go

A couple of years ago, a scared-to-tears Alberta premier Ed Stelmach had to be carried off by security staff after almost being hit by a pie thrown in his general direction. The way things are going, he’ll be wishing for a pie, because the next weapon of choice could well be some really stinky cow patties instead.

Stelmach’s popularity has been declining steadily. The only saving grace for him and his Tory party, which really isn’t a conservative party anymore, is that the leaders of the opposition parties will never win over true-blue Albertans. David Swann, leader of the Alberta Liberals, is a meek do-gooder who can barely excite himself. The Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason does have the Alberta fire burning in him, but he represents a party that Albertans will never put in power. So, right-thinking Albertans worried about the future of their province are now waiting for the Wildrose Alliance and hope that Danielle Smith will be elected party leader in September.

The premier himself will face a leadership review in his party in November. With the next election not scheduled until 2012, the only way to prevent further damage to Alberta’s economy and prosperity would be for the Tory members to oust Stelmach later this year. But since most conservatives have already left the party and are now betting on the Wildrose Alliance party, the few conservatives still remaining in the Tory party won’t be able to mount the kind of support necessary to hand the premier his walking papers.

Retard wins US Senate seat

What a disgrace! This guy sucked as a writer, comedian and actor, and as a politician he’ll suck even more. I pity the good people of Minnesota for being represented in the US Senate by a walking and talking birth defect:

Nearly eight months after Election Day, Al Franken, a former comedian and an author, appeared certain on Tuesday to become the next United States senator from Minnesota, giving the Democratic Party at least symbolic control over Senate filibusters.

Also see Michelle Malkin’s Send in the clown.

In Canada, terrorists are above the law

Let no one criticize the US for wanting to fortify its northern border with Canada. While the 9/11 terrorists did not enter the US from Canada, there are still way too many terrorists and other scum hiding out in Canada – some of them are not hiding at all but are in plain sight, like Salman Hossain:

A Toronto man who had posted messages on the Internet supporting terrorist attacks in Canada and the deportation of Jews will not face criminal charges, police said on Monday.

The Ontario Provincial Police hate crimes and extremism unit had been investigating Salman Hossain - whose writings included a call to kill Western soldiers "so that they think twice before entering foreign countries on behalf of their Jew masters" - for willfully promoting hatred toward the Jewish community, but the case was recently closed.

"The OPP reviewed the case with Crown counsel. As a result of that review, it was determined that insufficient grounds existed to support willful promotion of hatred charges," said Detective-Sergeant Brent Young.

What? This guy has been inciting violence and murder, and according to the OPP there is only “insufficient grounds”? Is the OPP staffed with monkeys or what? Should we change that, perhaps, to DPP for Dumb Provincial Police? Then again, Ontario already is a synonym for “dumb”.

Hossain’s online postings could not be clearer: He’s called on fellow terrorists in Canada and around the world to kill Jews and other infidels, including Canadian soldiers. According to Hossain, Canadian soldiers should be murdered not only in Afghanistan but also on Canadian soil.

His online postings do not only meet the definition of a hate crime; they also constitute a major and serious criminal act. Period.

Clearly, we have proof of a double standard here. Ezra Levant was hauled before the human rights kangaroo courts by the thoughtpolice for reprinting the Danish cartoons. The magazine Macleans’ and Mark Steyn were subjected to the same witch hunt and persecution over the latter’s excellent book America Alone (which tells the truth and nothing but the truth from beginning to end). But a terrorist like Hossain is not only “excused” (in this case by the sheer stupidity of the OPP), but also allowed to remain in Canada.

This story is one of the reasons why yours truly will not be celebrating tomorrow’s Canada Day. Common-sense and decent Canadians have nothing to celebrate anymore. This country effectively belongs to criminals, terrorists and communists – thanks to the short-sightedness and stupidity of the morons that populate Central Canada (i.e., Ontario).

h/t Jay Currie