Wednesday, September 17, 2008

This Is Why You Vet Candidates II

Some of our NDP friends were quite gleeful about Liberal candidate troubles, to which my response was "when you live in a glass house..". See, the trouble with taking the high ground, it better be firm. What does it say about Jack Layton, and the NDP, that they didn't properly vet a candidate in British Columbia, who has written books about young kids doing drugs?

There are other issues that have caused Dana Larsen to resign today, and frankly it's not that big of a deal to me, although it speaks to poor judgement on the part of the NDP. What is a big deal, Mr Larsen also penned a book, widely available, that has a child using drugs. A couple excerpts for context:
He bent his great, shaggy head over Hairy and exhaled a thick cloud of sweet smoke which surrounded the sleeping child, then leaned in closer and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Suddenly, Hogride let out a wail like a wounded pit bull...

Hairy reached up and touched the thick joint that was hanging between his lips. He realized he had unconsciously put it there when Hogride had passed it to him. He inhaled, tentatively at first, then deeply. The smoke filled his lungs. It felt good, it felt natural, it was delicious!

Hairy felt like the smoke flowed from his lungs and into every part of his body. He felt it filling him, touching him from the inside, becoming part of him. His mind filled with smoke. He felt his thoughts expanding, his head opening up with new ideas and connections.

Hairy closed his eyes. His thoughts were moving so fast that he felt like time was slowing down. His skin felt prickly. He inhaled again, even more deeply, and then felt Hogride pluck the joint from his mouth.

"Take it easy 'airy," said Hogride.

Keeping his eyes closed, Hairy took a deep breath of air. He felt almost like he was floating. Intricate patterns of colours streamed past his eyes. His mind was reeling with profound ideas, each new revelation whizzing by too fast for him to remember. He could hear Uncle Norm speaking, but the words didn't seem to make any sense.

Hairy opened his eyes. He looked around the room, his eyes blazing. He looked at Norm and Vanilla, and felt as if he was seeing them for the first time. He saw them not as his terrifying Uncle and his manipulative Aunt, but as two human beings, flawed, scared, lonely and confused, yet also noble and magnificent. Harry felt like he understood them. Even though they were both ruddy great gits who had made his life miserable for fifteen years, at that moment, Hairy forgave them.

Hairy smirked. Then he chuckled. He tried to hold it in but he could not, and suddenly a great spurt of laughter burst out of him.

Hairy laughed harder than he had ever laughed in his life. He suddenly got it! He got everything, and it was hilarious! Hairy laughed until he couldn't breathe. He thought of his life, his miserable sad life, and he laughed at what a loser he was.

A spoof on Harry Potter, Hairy Pothead, but look at the website, and tell me if that is appropriate. The book uses a child character to promote drug use, RED FLAGS everywhere, and CLEARLY something that should have alerted the NDP antenna.

Unreal.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok steve - sure we all get a little giddy when the other guy finds out he has a doofus running but this is a little over the top.

First of all one word - SATIRE - that in reference to the book. JK Rowling has her characters drink polijuice potion which could be read as a halucinegenic (i am so old I don't remember how to spell it). Alice from wonderland also 'took' drugs. And by the way they are all fictional. So save me the sanctimony.

I personally would be much more worried about the vetting of candidates if the candidate suggested the massacre of 150 first nations people.

Call me crazy. I am pretty sure that you guys also had a very prominent pot person run for you - so I went to the old google and look what I found:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/02/28/marijuana-050228.html

And look he donated to Dion:
http://democraticspace.com/canada/liberal2006/contributions-dion.pdf

Steve V said...

Nice attempt to deflect. I'm not giddy, just pointing out the hypocrisy, which you do again here. Amazing.

Steve V said...

"So save me the sanctimony."

LOL, it's all you guys ever do. Funny, the reaction when the worm turns...

northwestern_lad said...

Hmmm... I guess that satire is dead in the Liberal Party of Canada.

Seeing as how you are drawing parallels to what I wrote, are you saying that writing a satirical book is worse than repeatedly calling for the murder of Aboriginals??? Sorry Steve, those don't add up, not even close.

If you want to defend that Liberal candidate who uttered those words about killing the Mohawks at Oka, you do that, because I have no issue with defending a bit of satire.

Plus, this New Democrat candidate stepped aside of his own free will, unlike that Liberal candidate in question, who had the Co-Chair in Quebec fighting for him to stay on as a candidate. The NDP took this seriously, too bad that wasn't unanimous in the Liberal case.

Steve V said...

No Cam, what I'm saying is I tire of the pious NDP. I've never excused the Liberal candidate, but you try to paint a brush over the entire Liberal Party, and that isn't right, but you do it, because it's politically expedient.

Why didn't Jack vet this guy? And, from what I understand, there is MUCH more to come...

northwestern_lad said...

Steve... I did not "paint the brush" over the entire Liberal Party, but I questioned those who tried to keep that candidate as a candidate.

As someone who has been through the NDP's vetting process, I can tell you it's very strict and very thorough. It's very likely that this candidate didn't disclose this, which is more than likely why no one is fighting to keep him as a candidate. That's the difference here, you don't see anyone from the NDP saying "Keep him on", unlike what happened with that Liberal candidate in Quebec

Steve V said...

Ya, that sounds like a real thorough process. Those YouTube videos and the website are really tough to find on google. If you have a nanosecond, give it a shot. I guess what you're saying, THEY KNEW, but didn't see anything wrong with it.

Look, I'm no prude, if you catch me, but this stuff about children is ridiculous, all rationalizing about satire aside. And, if it's no big whoop, why resign?

northwestern_lad said...

Steve... You can deride their vetting all you want, but I speak from the experience of having gone through it. It's very thorough. As I said he probably didn't disclose it. If someone deliberately lies and conceals something, there is only so much you can do to find that out. As soon as they found out, they asked for his resignation, plain and simple. Like I said, unlike in the Liberal case, there was no one fighting to try to keep him as a candidate.
That's the big difference here.

Also, it should be pointed out that he didn't resign over books, he resigned over seeds, that's the big issue and that's why he resigned.

burlivespipe said...

I'm not happy that this guy had to step on the sword, or that the focus is off the issues to some poor choices. I agree with Steve, this is just an example of the NdP machine's hypocrisy. It's not the first time nor the last time that a candidate will be shown as human and not ready for prime time. But I remember Bob Hunter and how the NdP hierachy attacked him, for some story he wrote.
That still makes me mad.

Anonymous said...

where's the hypocrisy? When there is a revelation about an NDP candidate - he or she immediately steps down. Ideally other parties would take the same approach.

All parties are going to have these speed bumps - its all a question of how you handle it.

Steve V said...

I just listened to a CBC piece, and the reporter said the same thing I did- how can they say the vetted this guy, when the reporter found mountains of stuff during a quick google search.

Anonymous said...

How can the Liberals say they "vetted" their candidate in Quebec who had said racist about Mohawks in the press.

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Steve V said...

"People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

Exactly!!!!

Maybe the Libs didn't properly vet the Quebec candidate, but that didn't stop the NDP from using it to slag the party, DID IT? Now, we have a similar "poor vetting" example, and it's don't throw stones.

You guys are a joke.

Anonymous said...

That's politics. You attack your opponents when they fuck up.

Next question?

Steve V said...

Then don't bitch now :)

Dirk Buchholz said...

p.s...Steve; marijuana is not a drug its a herb.
And maybe the NDP did vet the guy but figured his "errors" were not such a big deal.
Particularly when one considers ,that most Canadian support decriminalization of marijuana.
Perhaps the guy is standing down so as not to distract away from real issues.
After all,seeing as the media has now caught the scent of what should be a trivial matter.We all know,that given a choice between covering NDP policies or trivial matters of a personal nature,which "issues" the media will chose to publicize.
No I see it more as a matter of the NDP,and it's "wayward"candidate,recognizing the reality,and countering it.Again before it distract voters from the real issues.