Thursday, April 26, 2007

Countdown Clock Obsolete

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The masters of foreplay have finally delivered their "Climate Disaster" plan (h/t Elizabeth May), which makes the countdown clock obsolete. However, might I suggest the following replacement. You don't even have to change the ticker:

Only 6823 days until we reach our Kyoto targets

Any other ideas?

23 comments:

Karen said...

Unbelievable isn't it? What kind of audacity does it take to produce 2 ridiculous plans in 15 months? The kind that the con's possess I guess.

Their spin is off the charts. Bottom line, if you don't want to go through the plan in detail:

- the Oil and Gas sector like it
- the car industry likes it
- Environmentalists are laughing
- NDP hate it
- Lib's hate it
- Greens hate it
- Bloq hates it
- all industry that has already made strides hate it

You be the judge.

Steve V said...

knb

Bingo! The reaction says it all doesn't it. Hargrove was relieved, the Petroleum rep seemed pleased, environmentalists are screaming. Simple math in my mind.

The funny part, Baird said today we have wasted 10 years, yet his plan takes another 13 to reach the initial goal. Are you saying we are wasting 3 years?

Oxford County Liberals said...

The folks at Prog Blog are already on the wording change.. expect an announcement and a slighlty updated wording on the clock shortly ;)

Steve V said...

They made it pretty easy, didn't they Scott :)

Karen said...

I should perhaps clarify that environmentalists are laughing in bad way. They cannot believe how ridiculous the plan is.

I clarify that, lest the trolls spin my comment.

Steve he also said that much more consultation is required. Huh? Joy McPhail, (yikes she's scary), said it was time to debate the issue. I suggest the NDP get another spokesperson.

These are bad, sad times in Canada, but if there is justice, this farce of a government will be punted to the opposition benches for a very, very long time.

Baird can spin himself into the centre of the planet, but no one with any credibility is going to back this plan and they will be vocal.

I can't think of her name at the moment, the CBC person sitting in for Newman, Susan? Anyway, she was clearly exasperated with the spin. I'd sure love to see more of that from the media .

Steve V said...

knb

The more consultation angle was the final insult. I'm actually surprised, I thought they were starting to get it. Baird was trying to push the .5 GDP, 8 billion dollar line, as though he wanted to prove there would be a cost- he was almost bragging about it.

Oxford County Liberals said...

The trolls are already out in full force at my site.. as Knb well knows. Apparently, we're trying to score partisan points (like the government isnt with this farce?_

The funny thing is.. the best they could come up with after I pointed to Harper and Co' disgraceful performance in the QP today in another thread was the counter-accusation I was a hack.

They really don't have an argument when they get to that point.. they're on the run a bit..on the defensive.. and when that happens.. typical Blogging Tory and Conservative ugliness surfaces.

Steve V said...

If we want to move beyond partisanship, why don't we just move to the bi-partisan revised CAA collecting dust, that solves it. Don't Tories endorse majority rule?

Karen said...

Steve, because the con's are simply about "politics" now. Baird says he wants to keep parts of the CAA, hmmm, I wonder which ones? Frankly I can't think of the procedure that would allow the bill to come back for debate. Can they now amend what they amended?

The bottom line for them, is not country, not the right thing, it's being sure they support NOTHING Liberal and win votes.

The house of cards is wobbling right now and they know it. What they didn't bank on, I don't think, is on what level Canadians hold their reputation. The age old debate is always that Canadians have no identity, save the fact that they are not American. That's ridiculous. Our identity runs deep, in all Canadians, old and new. That is, we are a country that respects Rights. We do the right thing here and in the world. We're not perfect, but we've tried to correct what we got wrong.

This government hates what we stand for so much, that they are willing to shift that image to support their agenda. Ironic isn't it? They call Lib's American bashers, yet they are Canadian bashers.

As of today, they are willing to breach an Int'l committment, Kyoto, have put us in question of abiding by the Geneva conventions, they've turned away from the indigenous people of this country and how we wronged them and the list goes on.

This country had better wake up and fast. It's bad enough to have trolls in the country, (on blogs and of course in the House), but now, it's creeping out to the Int'l community and we look like idiots.

ottlib said...

So that is it. Kyoto is officially dead in Canada.

The Conservatives have just kicked our international reputation in the nuts again.

The whole lead-up to this announcement has been watched by the rest of the world and they were not impressed. Now this announcement just confirms their worst fears.

Add to this the ongoing Afghan detainee fiasco and Canada's international reputation is taking a real beating this week.

Canada is a middle power and it depends on good relations with the rest of the world to get what it wants and needs from the world. Expect Canadian requests FOR ANYTHING from the international community to fall on deaf ears for the foreseeable future.

Except of course the Bush Administration. They should be very happy this week. Too bad it is mired in its own problems and has lost the confidence of not only the rest of the world but of most Americans.

It never ceases to amaze me at how this government seems to attach itself to what any objective person can see is a failed American adminstration. It is almost pathological, it is certainly pathetic, it was counterproductive to Canadian interests and now it is increasingly becoming destructive to Canadian interests.

Steve, in a previous post you stated no election until well into 2008. I hope you are wrong. The longer these idiots stay in power the more damage they do to Canada. They have got to go.

Oxford County Liberals said...

Knb:
I am so angry right now, that I believe I will be writing in a post tomorrow that between Afghanistan and this Green farce plan.. it is time to bring the government down before it can cause any more damage.

Karen said...

Scott, I'm not sure we're ready, but I'm with you. The more this all sinks in, the angrier I get.

Karen said...

ottlib:The longer these idiots stay in power the more damage they do to Canada

That is truth ottlib. We all need to rally now, NOW. The time has passed to sit around and debate the issue, it is clear where this government is taking us and we must make sure that all of Canada knows.

Steve V said...

ottlib

I was speaking about the government strategy. If you want my opinion, the opposition should walk out of the House tomorrow in protest, go in unison to the steps of parliament and demand that the Tory proposals be brought to a vote.

This is the issue of the day, if this parliament is so divided, then clearly the government has lost the confidence of the majority and an election should be called. I've said we should pull the plug on principle, the more I think about it, with this sham (oil execs were actually SMILING on the CBC), it might be smart politically as well. I'm ranting, but today was a joke that Canada simply can't afford

ottlib said...

Canadians take our international obligations very seriously.

To so blatantly break them does not seem to be smart politically.

I think the Liberals now have an overarcing line of argument with which to attack the government.

"They do not believe in meeting Canada's international obligations when they consider it to be politically inconvenient."

That has been demonstrated by the Afghan detainee revelations and it has been demonstrated by the abandonment of Canada's Kyoto Protocol obligations.

In the coming weeks and months the Liberals should be making that point at every opportunity. Do not make this about the environment or about the war in Afghanistan. Make it about this government not keeping Canada's word to the rest of the world.

Steve V said...

It will be interesting to see international reaction tomorrow.

ottlib said...

I do not think we will see much of a reaction immediately. I believe the reactin will manifest itself in other ways.

What worries me most about this is linkages to other issues. The Kyoto Protocol is very popular with the Europeans who just happen to be the countries we need to relieve our troops in Afghanistan.

If the Conservatives thought they were having difficulty getting the Europeans to carry more of the load in Afghanistan before, it will be nearly impossible to convince them now.

Indirectly, this decision could force Canada to keep its troops in the danger zone beyond the 2009 deadline. Not that such a result was desired by the Conservatives but it could just be an unintended consequence of today's announcement.

BlastFurnace said...

How about X number of days before our grandchildren get to breath clean air and drink clean water? Because most of us might not live to see 2050 if this plan goes through.

Karen said...

Ottlib: Make it about this government not keeping Canada's word to the rest of the world.

Yes, that is what I was trying to say, I'm just not as eloquent as you.

I'm going to write about this tomorrow, not tonight, because at the moment, I'm just too damned angry.

wayward son said...

knb "Huh? Joy McPhail, (yikes she's scary), said it was time to debate the issue. I suggest the NDP get another spokesperson."

I don't know, I can't tell the difference between MacPhail and Reynolds. As of late she seems like the perfect spokesperson for the New Demotories.

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

I think we should try to meet our Kyoto targets, my concern is that I don't know that we can realistically meet them, although we can do better than the current Tory plan. The problem here is we've waited too long. But at least if we get as close as possible that would help. Our international reputation could be saved by promising to pay a penalty for however, much we miss our targets.

In addition most European countries actually don't really care much about Canada regretably. I bet most Europeans don't even know who our PM is. I will though find it soon when I go to Europe. I'll be able to see how much of a difference wearing a Canadian lapel pin makes or not.

Steve V said...

"I think we should try to meet our Kyoto targets, my concern is that I don't know that we can realistically meet them, although we can do better than the current Tory plan."

Miles, I completely agree. I don't think we can meet our targets, but we can get close enough that the international community would surely cut us some slack (there was already mention of Canada's predicament in Nairobi).

Oxford County Liberals said...

Obviously, as you can now see... the clock has been updated :)