Yeah They're Bullet Holes

Stephen Taylor makes a desperate attempt to avoid assassination joke equivalency by producing the very "paper holes" istock file used by the Tories in their ill-advised "Dion surrounded by bullet holes picture".

Except he doesn't reproduce the entire page from istock (screenshot above).

Note the keywords for the file, esp. where I've placed the black arrow: Tiro al blanco. Hmmm! Wonder what that means. Click click click! Say, it means "target shooting"! Booyah! Just as suspected, the holes are the holes shot in a paper target!

So lets wheel out the apologies, Taylor, starting with PM Harper's mama and working its way down. One from Harper himself and, for me personally, one from Stockwell Day. Because Stockwell Day just annoys me. Remember, Stephen, its always best to apologize upfront. The scandal fades quicker that way.

And pull the offending pic from the CPoC website. And, oh yeah, you're getting creamed in my poll.

PS. Just to be clear, here's a shot of the file's keywords in English: not the English expression "target shooting".

A "Blast" From The Tory Past

Don't remember anyone apologizing for the drawing of Iggy pointing a gun at Dion, from the Tory website during last year's election campaign.

h/t

Me On CBC

I got an email yesterday afternoon from CBCs Ryan Hicks: would I be willing to appear on a bloggers panel with none other than Stephen Taylor to discuss the Libs photo contest gone awry ? The result is here, You have to scroll to the start of hour number two (that is, about 1:10 in), as we got bumped from the five fifteen spot by (frankly) more important events--rumours of prorogation and the like. Weird thing: I promised Ryan Hicks that I wouldn't trash Kady O'Malley on air for not reporting endlessly on ClimateGate, and then she didn't even show up!

The highlight is probably at the end where Taylor claims that "ad hominom attacks never work", these words intoned with well-faked sincerity.

Afterwards, stuck downtown, I tried taking myself out for a victory dinner. But Reillys, with the City's best wings, is gone, and everything along Yonge Street was packed. I finally settled on a Firken pub off Queen. I considered telling them that I shouldn't really have to pay because I had been on CBC, but didn't. They fucked up my order anyway.

In any case, the video segment begs the question: when seen together on the same television screen, who is hotter, me or Stephen Taylor? Readers may feel free to watch it and then take the following poll:

Gone Already: Libs Pull Controversial Cartoon

Before and After. It was above the picture of, I think, Madonna, and below the "Warming, what warming?". You can see it in the cache copy.

Anyway, a one day story remains a one day story (especially if an apology follows).

Assassination Jokes Are Never Funny

Bloviating aside, Jago's got a point. Not that the Tories haven't done something similar, but they pulled that picture down...eventually.

The rest of the Stephen Harper Anywhere But Copenhagen Photo Challenge are here. Most are quite good, although one or two stretch the boundaries of good taste where the context is the website of a major political party.

Speaking Of Jokes About Killing Politicians

This kind of looks like another one to me. What's the Tory message supposed to be? Dear fellow Albertans, your response to Dion's presentation of his Green Shift during stampede week was a little soft.

h/t CC.

Just Apologize

Sure, Rick Dykstra held the thing back until Dion showed up in town for maximum effect. Sure, its just a rehash of an old joke told many times about many different world leaders. Sure, if the Conservatives were seriously upset they would have, as Kinsella suggests, called in the police. But oh! what a stupid thing to put in a piece of campaign literature.

Say sorry, and it goes away after one day. Don't, and it stays an issue.

Stupid assassination joke is on page three of this.

Update: Apology made. Incident over