The Media Should Be Talking About This

It was in Frank, apparently the one day last month when I was not on the Internet.  It's seedy, a sex scandal, although everything between the two parties appears to have been consensual.  And the Minister is a "nice guy", and anyway it turns out he's leaving politics.  For the time being. Nevertheless, it seems an important Conservative  has been caught violating the moral code he and his ilk would like to impose on the rest of us.  We don't really know because nobody, nobody has demanded a response from Mr. Moore. And I don't like the idea of the MSM just turning a blind eye, which appears to be what has happened.  It reeks of being trapped in the same Ottawa bubble for too long with the people you are supposed to be covering, of Stockholm Syndrome, of  mistaking prey items for friends. In any case just think of what the coverage would have been if it had been  someone like Justin caught out this way.  It would have been a feeding frenzy. 

Andrew Coyne: The Case For Heartlessness

After coming to the aid of James Moore when the Industry Minister displayed his rabid child eating hating tendencies, Andrew is working up a new column in defense of Canada Post's Deepak Chopra, another Harper appointee, who stated recently that that seniors would welcome the exercise brought about by the discontinuation of door-to-door mail service and the introduction of community mailboxes.

I have recieved a copy of the first draft of Andrew's column, which I reproduce below without comment:

We can argue about the causes and about whether it is a worthy metric, but it is at least worth noting that 76% of seniors in Canada today own at least one gold encrusted walker with an attached jet pack. It is beyond question that we are  dealing with a segment of the Canadian civitas that is swathed in decades of nanny-state entitlement, and which desperately needs to be disrobed before the cold winds of Economic Reality.  

This is not to advocate any sort of truly radical solution.  For example, melting the old down into Soylent Green, which could then be redistributed through the back window of our limosines as a form of edible, if sticky, coinage to those indigent laborors who will later be shipped off to work in the Alberta Tar Mines or wherever required by the iron necessities of Neo-Liberteranian Theory, would strain the social consensus of the day.  Nevertheless, any initiative that can liberate the "stranded labour" of  our elderly, now wasted in the form of trips to Florida and summer evenings spent on the porch "whittling", should not be dismissed out of hand.

In fact, as we near Xmas I would suggest that we owe both Mr. Moore and Mr. Chopra a hearty thanks, for they have brought us the gift of Economic Clarity.  I am reminded of that touching scene in "A Christmas Story" where the venerable Scrooge whips that cripple with his belt: "More?  You want MORE?  While more you shall get, ingrate!"  And then: Smack!  Smack!  SMACK SMACK SMACK!!!  Smack...Smack!!...SMACK SMACK!!!!

I funny thing is, I kind of agree with Coyne on this issue.

CPC Minister James Moore Talks Poverty...And Pizza

looks good! “@AbelardoGD: I wonder what Minister @JamesMoore_org thinks about his pizza at the Parliament Pub. pic.twitter.com/ctm9adD4Zt”
— James Moore (@JamesMoore_org) September 27, 2013

James Moore, Xmastime 2013:

“Is it my job to feed my neighbour’s child? I don’t think so.”

PS.  If James Moore ever missed a meal in his entire life, please let me know.

Who Will Replace Stephen Harper?

When the history of Duffygate is written, I wonder if  people will say look back and say Oh!  So that's why Industry Minister James Moore's website looked so much like a campaign-for-leader site.  Others have already speculated that he might be the Tory's next one, although no-one really saw the transition occurring before 2015.  But now there's a real possibility that PM Harper may ride off into the sunset in the back of a police vehicle, and who knows maybe Mr. Moore saw it all coming?  In any case, if Harper pulls a McGuinty, watching Moore and Kenney fight it out for the soul of the party would be terrifically entertaining.

Northern Gateway Pot Pourri

Two new polls shows overwhelming opposition to Northern Gateway in B.C.  One of them suggests that a good portion of BCers are willing to negotiate a better deal with Alberta and the feds; the other suggests that Christy Clark's new harder line against the pipeline hasn't helped her electorally.  So, apparently, she has turned to God.  Meanwhile, senior BC Conservative cabinet minister James Moore has gone rogue, or maybe been cleared to express a dissenting opinion.  He says is all down to Enbridge, so if the project goes TU you know who the Tories plan to blame.  Meanwhile, Ft St James says no thanks; that's six B.C. communities  that have decided to take a stand against the pipeline.

So there you have it.

Tory MP James Moore Is Hilarious

He really is. Though as a taxpayer, its reassuring to know that he'll have plenty of time to post crap to his videoblog this winter. What's next? Maybe John Baird will take up macrame to while away the long hours.

Meet Alan Gough

...the Tories other audio expert in the Cadmania Scandal. He

...grew up in Stratford, Ontario and began working in the industry in 1964 in the studios of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Theology from the University of Waterloo. He speaks English, French, and Swahili.

He is important to the whole story about the Tories bizarre resurrection of The Cadman Affair, and their allegations re the Zytaruk tape, because his is the name that the Tories are not bandying about. (The name they are bandying about is "Tom Owens", of New Jersey). Well, why is that? Because Mr. Gough adds a few caveats to his analysis:

The other specialist hired by the party, Alan Gough, was less certain in his conclusions. Gough, co-founder of a firm called Integra View, concluded that the tape "is not a continuous recording of one conversation."

The interruption of words, changes of background ambiance, and changes of frequency response indicate that this may be three separate recordings. Any further analysis of these anomalies should be performed on the original recording and not on a copy," Gough said...

I suspect what is at issue here is that the Tories are looking at a copy of the original tape, perhaps the copy on the LPC's website. As one of Kady's fans has noted:

I see it as entirely possible that the Liberals put up an excerpt of the full tape on their website.

On having that analyzed, it would obviously be an edited version, at which point they could run around saying that the Liberals doctored the tape — whether or not the editing was anything germane or substantial to the issue.

Which begs the question. If the real purpose of this Tory stunt is to stop the Liberals from using their version of the tape in campaign commercials, why could said Liberals not return to the original, re-excerpt it, and use that?

In any case, thanks to James Moore for bringing this one back from the dead.

PS. Here is the website for Mr. Gough's company, Integra View, and this article touches a bit on the kind of work he does in real life.

Update: Apparently, the copy the CPoC analysed came direct from the publisher. Be interesting to know what kind of file it wound up being? An MP3 on a disk, for example? That's going to be significantly degraded from the original.

Update II: Tories are now suggesting Libs are in cahoots with Zytaruk, according to this new release from Party HQ. Weirdest bit:

When did the Liberal Party obtain the doctored tape? From whom did they receive it? Who in the Party received it?

Why are they asking this if in fact the tape analysed came to the analysts from the publisher via the Conservative Party. Isn't the answer to their 2nd question therefore: from the same people you got your copy from? And suddenly Paul Martin is involved.

Masturbagate Scandal Still Has Juice!

As I suspected, London NDP MP Irene Mathyssen's apology to Conservative MP James Moore will eventually arrive laced with fake outrage:

"I would say we all learned some lessons," she said of the brouhaha she sparked when she complained to Speaker Peter Milliken on Wednesday about seeing the image on the laptop of Moore, who sits in front of her in the Commons.

The two lessons, Mathyssen said, were: "I should have spoken to him (Moore); and he, that his personal photos do not belong on the floor of the House of Commons. I regret I didn't speak to him first because his behaviour was inappropriate."

A point I actually agree with, for no other reason than if you ever did what Moore did in the corporate world, you would soon find yourself in the HR office, getting gently corrected. Yes its sad that people are anal these days, but they are anal these days and, as far as I can tell, nobody's planning to make it illegal. It isn't really a left/right thing either. Accidentally show an exposed cyber-tit to the evangelical office girl down the hall (the one who has pamphlets on her desk) and see what happens. The problem is, of course, that she's so damned hot in those tight sweaters that your mind is fairly overwhelmed with images of spanking her in the columbarium, and nailing her stand-up style against the chancel railing...



But I digress.



The point is, I suppose, where would you rather have people like Irene Mathyssen? Out on the street, or in Parliament where they can't do too much damage.

Get A Room, James Moore

OTTAWA -- Conservative MP James Moore is the subject of a complaint that he's been checking out "scantily clad'' women on his laptop computer in Parliament.

[New Democrat MP] Irene Mathyssen claimed during question period Wednesday that she saw Moore viewing pictures of "scantily clad" women on his laptop in the parliamentary chamber.

Maybe Irene Mathyssen reacted too soon. Another five minutes and she might have caught him tugging it under the Conservative benches.

James Moore, Public Wanker???

Update: Inconsiderate fratboy or puritanical feminazi? It is increasingly beginning to look like the latter as NDP MP Mathyssen prepares to apologize for her "spontaneous" outrage upon seeing what turned out to be pictures of Mr. Moore's girlfriend. That said, Mr. Moore, the House is for working, the Senate is for sleeping, and you look at personal pictures in your office.