PM Steve Joins the Circus

Written By: Reverend Blair
Date: 2007-06-05 12:27:29
<a href="/article/22272987-pm-steve-joins-the-circus">Article Link</a>

Harper refused to say exactly what he was going to do, but did say that he was going to act as a bridge between the European countries and the United States. Harper and his aids also said that they wouldn't sign any deal that China and India weren't a part of and explained that any agreement would have to take into account that Canada was special and unique. Special and unique? Every country is special and unique. All face specific challenges. Canada does not face any challenges that aren't also an issue for other countries though. Other countries are large, other countries produce oil, and other countries are cold. If they can reduce their emissions, so can we. What makes us special and unique in this case is Steve's close relationship with his friend George. George has Steve peddling intensity-based targets like a crooked carnie with a crack habit. Steve’s latest line is that allowing the use of intensity targets instead of absolute targets will encourage countries that did not sign onto Kyoto to join in negotiations for the next stage. Of course the most notable of the three countries that did not sign onto Kyoto is the United States. The United States already has intensity-based targets as part of George Bush’s “Clear Skies Act.” Under that act, total US emissions have risen. China and India are signatories of Kyoto under Schedule B, meaning that they don’t presently have targets, but do have obligations and are expected to have targets, hard targets, in whatever agreement comes next. If they refuse to negotiate those targets, there is a better than even chance they will face some rather harsh penalties in trade in the coming years. If Harper and Bush succeed in selling the idea of intensity targets, we can expect China and India to keep increasing their emissions at even higher than their present rates. In Canada if the Liberals had openly used intensity targets instead of letting that be the unspoken real measurement or our emissions reductions, they could now be claiming to have met the goal we set. Our intensity levels went down 43 percent between 1990 and 2004 while total emissions rose 37 percent. Steve is currently seeking an 18 percent intensity reduction. Intensity targets mean nothing. They mean nothing for Canada, they mean nothing for the US, and they mean even less for nations working their way from developing to developed. That Steve’s preferred method of measurement failed in the US and allowed absolute emissions in Canada to rise does not deter him from claiming that it is the failure of previous Liberal governments that now force us to adopt intensity targets instead of absolute targets. Steve wants, he says, to be a world leader in emissions reductions. He also says that Canada is becoming a “green energy superpower.” I’m sure that the Europeans find that quite amusing, considering their massive investments in cleaner energy and their largely successful attempts to reduce emissions. I get the “energy superpower” part, it’s hard not to be with Canada’s massive oil resources. I can’t help but wonder what Steve means by “green” though. There’s nothing green at all about the tar sands or our exports to the US and China. There is nothing green about any of Steve’s policies when one takes the time to examine them. Perhaps it’s a version of the old “Six Foot Man Eating Chicken” gag that the carnies have been pulling on us rubes since misleading advertising was first recognized as a money maker. Steve and his friend John might find that fleecing the rubes in Europe is not as easy as fleecing them here at home though. Oh, the Europeans are likely to play along and make the right noises in the name of finding common ground. They’ll smile and show up for the photo-ops and shake hands. They’ve seen this show before, though. They are familiar with the misdirections. When Steve gazes into his crystal ball and predicts doom and gloom for the economy if Canada lives up to it’s obligations, when John deals the Tarot (no doubt from the bottom of the deck) and claims that the Harper government has a real plan to reduce emissions, the Europeans are likely to smile and nod. They are sophisticated enough to recognize light entertainment. When Steve and John give their joint press conferences with other members of the G-8, the Europeans are likely to ignore the strings. They know the puppeteer, after all, and they’ve been dealing with him for quite some time now. The Europeans are currently humouring Puppeteer George until he retires from the carnie biz and can be replaced with a more adept act. Steve’s first puppet act upon his arrival in Germany was to speak to a group of German business leaders. In that speech, Steve said that Canada cannot meet it Kyoto targets. He also failed to mention the United Nations even once. While he and his handlers later tried to move away from that omission, they were less than convincing. Political leaders do not simply forget to mention the UN when speaking to an international audience, and Steve certainly remembered to mention the UN when attempting to justify Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan. The omission was not accidental. It was a pointed attempt to move away from real international negotiations and into a US-controlled sham. Steve also took time to blame the Liberals. I’m sure the German business community is truly fascinated by Canadian political history, and incredibly impressed with a national leader who refuses to take responsibility for his nation’s actions. Why not? Life is a carnival, after all. I wonder if Steve was hawking broken watches in the lobby after his little speech as well? Steve’s final bit of duplicity is his magic misdirection game. Every other Kyoto signatory uses 1990 as a baseline. Steve uses 2006. Every other signatory means absolute targets when they say absolute targets. When Steve says absolute targets, he means intensity-based targets. When other leaders talk about their unique challenges, they are boasting about the ways they’ve found to meet those challenges. When Steve talks about unique challenges, he’s trying to get people to look the other way while he marks their backs with chalk so his buddy George can pick their pockets later on. When Steve says he’ll reduce emissions, he means he’ll allow them to rise. Steve is indeed acting like a carnie with a crack habit. I expect he’ll be setting up a three-card monte table in the foyer at the G-8 meeting. Anything to fleece the rubes, after all. The Europeans aren’t stupid. They’ve had a long history of flim-flam men and scam artists. They know all about three card monte and the old shell game. The people Steve is dealing with, the members of the G-8, are fully aware of the con he’s pulling. They are, after all, an organisation that exists mostly to ensure that the money keeps flowing in from the marks on the midway. He’s not fooling anybody. The movers and shakers at the G-8 also know that the one thing they want to be seen to be doing above all, taking real action on global warming, is something that Steve wants to avoid doing at all costs. This is where their interests differ from Steve’s. They will smile and nod though. They’ll show up for those photo-ops and shake his hand. They’ll say they are working towards some common ground. They know all about Steve. They also know that it’s not easy to find someone willing to be the bogeyman on the world stage today. Steve might think he’s fooling the people at the G-8. He might think that the leaders of Europe are just hicks and rubes and that the member states of the G-8 are marks. He might think a lot of things. The people he’s dealing aren’t amateurs though, and they need something to scare the children with. They’ll have Steve locked in a cage and biting the heads off of live chickens by the fall. Right where he belongs. [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on June 6, 2007]

And whilst the head of the Canadian neocons is away doing his master's bidding, his little minions in Canada all voted against banning bulk water exports. Thank God our democracy still works or we would be held hostage by the 25% of Canadians who still support these American-first idiots.

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If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.

pm harpo the clown does it again

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General strike could be coming to a place near you...are you ready?